According to The Hollywood Reporter, actor Gina Carano (Deadpool, Fast & Furious 6) is suing Disney and Lucasfilms for discrimination and wrongful termination from The Mandalorian. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit continues the discussion over power and influence within Hollywood.
Carano alleges, in a filed compliant, that her role was terminated after posting right-wing comments on her social media. She’s hoping to win a court order that forces Lucasfilm to recast her. Due to Carano’s comments appearing on the Twitter platform and after Elon Musk (Iron Man 2) promised to pay for discrimination lawsuits due to activity on his platform.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, X’s head of business operations Joe Benarroch said, “As a sign of X Corp’s commitment to free speech, we’re proud to provide financial support for Gina Carano’s lawsuit, empowering her to seek vindication of her free speech rights on X and the ability to work without bullying, harassment, or discrimination.”
The suit spawned from Lucasfilm decision in 2021 that Carano will not be returning to The Mandalorian after sharing a series of hot topic right-wing posts, such as mocking Covid-19 mask mandates and falsely suggesting voter fraud occurred during the 2020 presidential election. The final straw was when she shared a post which implied that being a “Republican is like being Jewish during the Holocaust.” Following her dismissal from the series, UTA dropped her as a client.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, in the complaint, Carano claims Disney and Lucasfilm harassed and defamed her for refusing to conform with their viewpoints on several issues relating to Black Lives Matter, disproven claims of election interference and preferred pronouns. She calls out Disney’s hypocrisy for the lack of punishment for actions she deemed equal to her statements. She cited Pedro Pascal’s (The Last of Us, Narcos) 2017 post comparing former president Donald Trump to Hitler as an action that was equivalent to her’s yet Pascal didn’t receive any punishment.
Within the suit, Carano says Disney required her to meet with representative of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination and demanded her to say a public apology. The complaint states, “defendants went so far as to try and convince Carano’s publicist to force Carano to issue a statement admitting to mocking or insulting an entire group of people, which Carano had never done.”
After Carano rejected the order, she was forced to meet with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park franchise) and 45 employees who identify as LGBTQ+. She was officially terminated after refusing to meet with Kennedy.
On top of her discrimination and wrongful termination claim, she said Disney engaged in a smear-campaign by removing her from Running Wild with Bear Grylls promotional materials by omitting her name from the episode list and series trailers.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Carano said in a statement, “some of us have been unjustly singled out, harassed, persecuted and had our livelihoods stripped away because we dared to encourage conversation, asked questions, and refused to go along with the mob. I am honored that my case has been chosen to be supported by the company (X/Twitter) that has been one of the last glimmers of hope for free speech in the world.”
Carano v. Disney by THR