Gina Carano Sues Disney over Firing from ‘The Mandalorian,’ Elon Musk Funding Lawsuit

Actress and MMA star Gina Carano is suing the Walt Disney Company for firing her from the Star Wars series The Mandalorian in 2021, alleging the studio violated California law by discriminating against her over her political beliefs.

Gina Carano filed the suit against Disney and its Lucasfilm division Tuesday in a California federal court. In a notable plot twist, her court case is being funded by Elon Musk’s X, which has pledged to finance lawsuits of those who claim to have been discriminated against by their employer because of their statements made on the social media platform.

Carano is also alleging Disney defamed her by mischaracterizing her social media posts and her character, resulting in the loss of her agent and attorney as well as future employment opportunities.

“We rely on our leaders and people in positions of power to be just, cool- headed and steady-handed and to be able to listen to all sides of the story, keep the peace and act justly,” Carano said in a statement.

However, “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.”

The actress played the recurring character Cara Dune during the first two seasons of the Disney+ streaming series The Mandalorian before she was fired in 2021.

Disney and Lucasfilm also reportedly scrapped plans to cast Carano as one of the stars of a planned spinoff Disney+ series, Rangers of the New Republic.

“Disney bullied Ms. Carano, trying to force her to conform to their views about cultural and political issues, and when that bullying failed, they fired her,” said Gene Schaerr, managing partner at Schaerr Jaffe, LLP and attorney of record on the case.

“Punishing employees for their speech on political or social issues is illegal under California law.”

At the time of Carano’s firing, Disney issued a statement saying her “social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

The studio didn’t specify the posts in question.

For years, Carano had used her social media accounts, including what was then Twitter, to criticize a host of left-wing sacred cows, including mask mandates, COVID lockdowns, and transgender pronouns. She also expressed skepticism about the integrity of the 2020 election.

The post that appeared to immediately precipitate her firing was an Instagram post in which Carano meant to highlight how unjust it is to have a mob seek to destroy someone for their political briefs. “Carano made no mention of a political party or a particular point of view and compared no one or group of people to the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Rather, she noted the danger that arises when one point of view is singled out for harassment,” the suit says.
“Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?” she wrote.

Her comment set off a cancel culture campaign spearheaded by the mainstream news media, resulting in the hashtag #FireGinaCarano to trend on Twitter.

Disney ultimately caved and fired the actress.

A few noted at the time that a double standard was at work — Carano’s Mandalorian co-star Pedro Pascal also used the Holocaust as a political metaphor on social media without being fired by Disney.

The difference is that while Carano compared current Democratic policies to the Nazis, Pascal likened the Trump administration to Germany’s Third Reich.

In a 2018 tweet, Pedro Pascal attempted to smear the Trump administration by comparing the detention of migrant children at the border to Nazi concentration camps. Pascal used the hashtag #ThisIsAmerica while juxtaposing photographs of a Nazi concentration camp dated 1944 and what appears to be a photo of migrant youths in a border facility.

The Walt Disney Company hasn’t yet publicly commented on Carano’s lawsuit.

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