Why Amber Heard’s Mera Has A British Accent In Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Zack Snyder’s Justice League brings Aquaman star Amber Heard’s Mera back, but for some reason, with a British accent. When Snyder’s film was originally going to come out, the filmmaker was going to introduce multiple supporting players from the other heroes’ respective mythologies. The original DCEU slate would have had Justice League setup films like Aquaman, Cyborg, The Flash, and The Batman. But following the controversy of Warner Bros. and Joss Whedon retooling Justice League, a lot of those plans were remodeled.

Both Jason Momoa and Heard’s characters got their DCEU setups before starring in James Wan’s Aquaman in 2018, but had the Snyder Cut been released the way it was supposed to in 2017, the build-up would have been very different. For example, Mera wasn’t the only Atlantean that Arthur Curry encountered in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, with Willem Dafoe’s Vulko getting his due in the 4-hour cut that also restored his intended arc. While the HBO Max movie and the Aquaman film from 2018 understandably don’t line up in terms of tone and continuity, the Snyder Cut did come with a weird change to Mera.

Mera’s arc is mostly the same in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, with some significant scenes restored and added for her that weren’t in the theatrical cut. The biggest addition was Mera being included in the Knightmare timeline where she is fighting alongside Batman and other DC characters. However, something that wasn’t in the 2017 film was a Mera that spoke with a British accent. In the Snyder Cut, Heard’s character is, for unknown reasons, speaking with a different accent while all her dialogue is pretty much the same. Whether or not Heard’s British accent is believable or not is a discussion in itself.

While not confirmed, it’s evident that when Whedon was reshaping the film, Heard had to either do ADR in post-production or she had to reshoot her scenes with Momoa. Based on what was seen in Zack Snyder’s Justice League when comparing to the theatrical cut, it seems more likely that Heard did ADR. In Aquaman, the British accent is nowhere to be heard, meaning that perhaps Wan (or even Warner Bros.) didn’t want to go in that direction for Mera in the Aquaman movie, and since Snyder’s version of the character wasn’t going to appear in the theatrical cut, changing the accent was an easy decision to avoid future conflict. The addition of a British dialect doesn’t change the character’s arc, though, but it certainly does affect viewers’ perception especially after having already seen Mera in Aquaman.

What Zack Snyder’s Justice League does tell though is that the director intended to have Mera speak with a British accent. For anyone who didn’t follow those films, and went into the Snyder Cut without the DCEU in mind, may not be as curious about why Mera speaks the way she does. But it’s understandable why many would be thrown off with this change when viewing Zack Snyder’s Justice League, especially if they also saw Mera in both 2017’s Justice League and Aquaman.