A campaign to have Amber Heard removed from the cast of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom had “no impact” on casting decisions, according to the film’s producer.

• READ MORE: Aquaman – stars Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson and director James Wan on the Superman of the sea

In a recent episode of Deadline‘s Hero Nation Podcast, producer Peter Safran addressed the campaign, started after she filed a lawsuit against ex-husband Johnny Depp, and how it never influenced the team’s casting choices.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to react to, honestly, pure fan pressure,” Safran said.

“You gotta do what’s best for the movie. We felt that if it’s James Wan, and Jason Momoa, it should be Amber Heard. That’s really what it was.”

Safran later said, “One is not unaware of what is going on in the Twitter-verse, but that doesn’t mean you have to react to it or take it as gospel or accede to their wishes.

“You have to do what’s right for the film, and that’s really where we landed on it.”

One particular Change.org petition to have Heard removed from Aquaman 2 has over 1.8million signatures at the time of writing.

Referencing the above petition in November last year, Heard, whose set to reprise her role as Mera in the forthcoming sequel, said in an interview, “Paid rumours and paid campaigns on social media don’t dictate [casting decisions] because they have no basis in reality.

“Only the fans actually made Aquaman and Aquaman 2 happen.”

Last year, Depp lost his libel case against The Sun, after the publication referred to the the actor as a “wife-beater”, claiming physical abuse against Heard.

In March, Depp was denied permission to appeal his libel case against NGN, as Depp’s legal team said the actor was “looking forward to presenting the complete, irrefutable evidence of the truth” in another libel case in the US.

Depp’s forthcoming US libel case against Heard is going ahead, though it was recently delayed until April 2022.

There are at least three new documentaries reportedly in the works around Depp’s ongoing legal issues, including an ITV programme allegedly called Depp vs Heard.