By Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actor Gina Carano on Tuesday sued Lucasfilm and its parent The Walt Disney Co. over her 2021 firing from “ The Mandalorian,” saying she was let go for expressing right-wing views on social media.
The lawsuit Carano filed with help from X, formerly Twitter, in federal court in California alleges her wrongful termination from the “ Star Wars ” galaxy Disney+ streaming series after two seasons over a post likening the treatment of American conservatives to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.
“A short time ago in a galaxy not so far away, Defendants made it clear that only one orthodoxy in thought, speech, or action was acceptable in their empire, and that those who dared to question or failed to fully comply would not be tolerated,” the lawsuit opens. “Carano was terminated from her role as swiftly as her character’s peaceful home planet of Alderaan had been destroyed by the Death Star.”
The lawsuit alleges she was fired because she “dared voice her own opinions” against an “online bully mob who demanded her compliance with their extreme progressive ideology.”
Disney and Lucasfilm have not filed a response to the lawsuit, and representatives did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
A Lucasfilm statement at the time of her firing said “her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Carano is seeking damages to be determined at trial and a court order that she be recast on the show.
The “Mandalorian,” starring Pedro Pascal, has aired for three seasons and is now being turned into a feature film. Several interconnected series also air on Disney+.
The lawsuit says Lucasfilm also hurt her future work prospects by making “maliciously false” statements about her.
Carano, a former mixed martial artists who played the recurring character Cara Dune on the bounty hunter tale “The Mandarlorian,” deleted the post but it was widely shared online and spurred a trending #FireGinaCarano hashtag.
Carano had previously been criticized for social media posts that mocked mask wearing during the pandemic and made false allegations of voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. She also mocked the use of gender pronouns in profiles, listing “beep/bop/boop” in her social media bio. She said this was not about mocking trans people but a “Star Wars” reference to R2-D2, and the lawsuit calls it “a playful way to defuse all the harassment she had received.” But she alleges the issue led to the company harassing her.
The lawsuit says Carano willingly took part in Zoom meetings with leaders of LGBTQ+ groups at the company’s behest with “very positive” results, but that Lucasfilm demanded a public apology in which she admitted “to mocking or insulting an entire group of people, which Carano had never done” and subjected her to other harassment over the issue.
Carano said on social media Tuesday that X had helped fund the lawsuit. X owner Elon Musk shared her post, adding that anyone else who felt they had been wronged by the company should “let us know if you would like to join the lawsuit against Disney.”
Feature image from Associated Press by Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP
