'Aquaman 2' diminishes Amber Heard's role to a mere 11 lines, grunts, and a laugh

• Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Aquamand and the Lost Kingdom."
• Amber Heard appears as Mera in "Aquaman 2" for about 20 minutes. It feels purely contractual.

Amber Heard appears in the "Aquaman" sequel, but her role is barely a fleshed-out character.

Heard returns as Mera, Aquaman's love interest, but fans may be surprised by how little she's actually in "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom."

Despite being a lead in 2018's "Aquaman," Mera is minimized to a tertiary character with little dialogue in the sequel, even though she's now married to Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and has given birth to their newborn child.

During the defamation trial against her former husband, Johnny Depp, Heard testified she was given a pared-down role in the sequel, claiming some of her action scenes were removed and she fought to stay in the movie. (In the same trial, Walter Hamada, the former president of Warner Bros.' DC Films, denied that claim during a prerecorded deposition saying Heard was never a colead in the sequel.)

In October, Variety reported at least two scenes with Heard were cut, including a fight with the villain, Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), and a love scene with Aquaman.

Though Heard appears briefly in a few action sequences in the first 35 minutes and the final half hour, her total screen time clocks in at around 15 to 20 minutes.

In the under-two-hour film, she has a total of 11 brief speaking parts.

In order, here's a breakdown of Mera's lines in "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom."

In the first ~35 minutes:

1. Mera to Aquaman: "Arthur, the council has called for an emergency gathering. There's been another plague outbreak."

2. Mera to the council in the following scene: "There haven't been outbreaks like this in ages. Why now?"

3. Mera to Aquaman's mom, Atlanna (Nicole Kidman): "They raided the storage vault, we can't let them get away."

In the final half-hour:

1. Mera speaks about Black Manta to Atlanna, Orm, and Aquaman in her longest line of dialogue.

2. "Where's Jr.?"

3. Mera screams "No!"

4. Mera to a group: "Not with Jr. in the crossfire."

5. Mera to a group: "That's right. Ultrasonic echoes."

6. Mera to no one in particular: "I sense something in the water."

7. Mera to Dr. Shin: "Thank you."

8. Mera to Orm: "Yes, all this ice. It'd be impossible to find the body."

Mera is neutered with no personality in 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom'

Early on, Mera appears ruling Atlantis and carrying out sessions with the council. When Atlantis is attacked, Mera jumps into action to defend her people and gets critically injured by Black Manta.

She's sidelined for the majority of the movie, healing until she returns in the final act to help Aquaman and Orm defeat Black Manta.

Devoid of any real depth, Heard's entire existence in "The Lost Kingdom" feels purely contractural to fulfill her three-movie deal with Warner Bros.

The majority of Heard's screen time consists of silence as she awkwardly sits and stands pretty beside or behind Aquaman, seemingly biting her tongue. Like Ariel in Disney's "The Little Mermaid," whom Mera resembles with her red hair and green outfit, it's like someone stole her voice.

Upon the rare moment Mera speaks, it's mostly in simplistic sentences. She rarely utters more than one piece of dialogue at a time. Otherwise, Mera's relegated to a few grunts and a laugh.

It's a huge departure from her role in the first movie where Mera has full, meaningful conversations with Aquaman and Orm.

A shell of herself, Mera's neutered with a paper-thin personality in the sequel. At times, she looks entirely built by CGI in action scenes.

While she gets to show off her powers a handful of times, the new mom doesn't even get much screen time with her baby boy, Arthur Jr. Aquaman and his father (Temuera Morrison) handle most of Jr.'s parenting on land while Mera rules Atlantis off-screen as queen.

As a result, Mera's love story isn't believable, as Heard and Momoa exchange minimal dialogue and a singular kiss between them is devoid of a spark. (Hamada claimed a lack of chemistry between the pair caused WB to consider recasting her role in the sequel.)

The most fun Heard appears to have on-screen is when Mera uses her water power to direct their son's pee in Aquaman's face as he changes a diaper, resulting in a gleeful laugh on her part.

Heard was reportedly never supposed to have a big role in the sequel

In a September interview with Entertainment Weekly, director James Wan said Heard was never set to colead the sequel. The plan was to make a bromance with Arthur bonding with his estranged brother Orm.

Despite WB and Wan's claim, it's tough to believe there wasn't another version of this film where Mera teamed up with her husband to track down his brother and the trio confronted Black Manta.

Instead, Aquaman teams up with an octopus (Topo from the first movie) in addition to his brother Orm.

While Aquaman and Topo may have been the plan all along (the cephalopod was Aquaman's sometimes sidekick in the comics), it certainly feels like Heard was ditched for an octopus.

The movie had an opportunity to explore the awkward tension between Mera, Orm, and Aquaman since Arthur won Mera over from his brother — a plot point Black Manta openly shames the hero for in the sequel as pretty messed up. It went a tamer route.

Regardless of Heard's runtime, she's the winner in the end. Heard said she earned $2 million for the sequel before any additional box-office bonuses.

"Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is now playing in theaters.