Elon Musk saved Amber Heard's role in 'Aquaman 2' by sending a 'scorched-earth letter' to Warner Bros., says report

• Variety reports that Amber Heard's"Aquaman 2" role was "saved" by ex-boyfriend Elon Musk.
• Musk's litigator sent a "letter to Warner Bros. threatening to burn the house down," if she were to be fired, the outlet reported.

Elon Musk may be the reason why Amber Heard reprised her role as Mera for the sequel to the hit 2018 movie, "Aquaman."

While the first movie was a success — it grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office — Heard's return for "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," set to be released in December, was questioned following her heavily publicized defamation trial with her former husband Johnny Depp.

"I fought really hard to stay in the movie — they didn't want to include me in the film," Heard said in May 2022 while on the witness stand during the trial.

However, Variety reported Tuesday that Warner Bros. apparently began discussing whether to leave Heard out of the sequel after the movie opened in 2018, years before the defamation trial.

Sources told Variety reporter Tatiana Siegel that the studio and director James Wan wanted to drop her due to a lack of chemistry with Jason Momoa, who plays the titular superhero, and even sent a letter to her attorney, Karl Austen, to inform him of the decision.

Ultimately, the studio didn't ax Heard because Musk stepped in.

"Musk had one of his litigators send a 'scorched-earth letter to Warner Bros. threatening to burn the house down' if the actress wasn't brought back for a sequel," a source familiar with the situation told Variety.

Representatives for Heard, Musk, Musk's lawyer, and Warner Bros. didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Musk and Heard first met in 2016 when Heard was still married to Depp. They have said they first started dating in 2017, shortly after Heard divorced Depp. However, Depp has accused Heard of having affairs with Musk — a claim that Heard has denied.

During their relationship, Musk offered to "arrange 24/7 security" for the actor, according to texts that were read in court during Depp's 2020 libel suit against The Sun. Musk reportedly offered the extra security measures after Heard told him she wanted a restraining order against her ex-husband, claiming that Depp had thrown his phone at her face during an argument. Depp has denied the accusation.

Musk also allegedly donated $250,000 in Heard's name to a children's art program, a witness said during the defamation trial.

The actor had an on-and-off relationship with Musk until 2018 when the Tesla CEO started dating the singer Grimes, whose legal name is Claire Boucher.

A recent biography on the billionaire has also shed more light on his relationship with Heard.

The biographer, Walter Isaacson, told Kara Swisher last month that "nothing hurt him more" than his relationship with Heard.

Grimes told Isaacson that if Heard was a "Dungeons and Dragons" character, she would be "chaotic evil" and compared Musk's relationship with the actor to his complicated relationship with his father.

In his book, Isaacson detailed some of the heated fights between Heard and Musk.

"She and Musk would stay up all night fighting, and then he would not be able to get up until the afternoon," he wrote.