Actress Gina Carano, best known for her role as Cara Dune on The Mandalorian, is suing Disney over her firing from the series, alleging discrimination and wrongful termination.
Spotted first by The Hollywood Reporter, which also published the lawsuit in full, Carano's legal counsel filed a complaint in the United States District Court Central District of California today. Carano alleges that she was terminated from her role because "she dared voice her own opinions on social media platforms and elsewhere."
The former MMA fighter also published a statement on X/Twitter, in which she revealed that Elon Musk is funding the lawsuit, citing the tech entrepreneur's previous pledge to fund any legal action for X/Twitter users who faced workplace discrimination because of their activity on the social media platform.
Today is an important day for me--I am filing a lawsuit against @lucasfilm & @Disney
— Gina Carano ? (@ginacarano) February 6, 2024
After my 20 years of building a career from scratch, and during the regime of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, Lucasfilm made this statement on Twitter, terminating me from The Mandalorian: “Gina…
In her statement, Carano claims her words were "consistently twisted to demonize & dehumanize me as an alt right wing extremist. It was a bullying smear campaign aimed at silencing, destroying & making an example out of me." She also claims that her "male co-stars permitted to speak without harassment & re-education courses or termination, but I was not afforded the same right to exercise my freedom of speech."
Musk quoted Carano's post ecouraging anyone to let him or Carano "know if [they] would like to join the lawsuit against Disney."
Carano was fired by Disney-owned company Lucasfilm in 2021 following a long series of controversial social media posts. In particular, she drew backlash over a now-deleted Instagram post where she compared being a Republican in the modern day to being Jewish during the Holocaust.
Additional controversies include posts suggesting the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen and seemingly mocking the practice of adding pronouns in social media bios by adding "boop/bop/beep" to hers. (She addresses this controversy in her statement, saying she was merely "making droid noises from Star Wars" and that it "was was obviously directed to the online bullies and did not in any way denigrate transgender people."
As backlash intensified, the complaint alleges that Disney required Carano to meet with representatives from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination (GLAAD) and demanded she make a public apology, which she refused. The lawsuit alleges that Disney engaged in a "post-termination smear campaign" aganst her.
Some of the remedies Carano is seeking in the lawsuit include being rehired to play Cara Dune "with no loss of pay or benefits," in addition to two forms of compensatory damages; back pay she missed out on as a result of her firing "to the date of reinstatement"; and compensation for future employment including her "promised role in Rangers of the New Republic."
Carano portrayed Cara Dune on The Mandalorian for two seasons before she was fired. Following her termination from Lucasfilm, it was reported that Carano's character was supposed to be a lead character in the aforementioned Star Wars series Rangers of the New Republic, which was supposed to be revealed at the 2020 Disney Investor Day before those plans were scrapped.
Disney did not immediately respond to IGN's request for comment.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
