LOS ANGELES – American billionaire Elon Musk is financing a lawsuit against Walt Disney by American mixed martial artist-turned-actress Gina Carano, who claims she was wrongly fired from the hit series The Mandalorian (2019 to present) over social media posts criticised as anti-Semitic and transphobic.
Carano’s lawsuit filed on Feb 6 in federal court in Los Angeles claims Disney and Lucasfilm violated California law in terminating her from the Star Wars spin-off in February 2021 over her political views.
The 41-year-old also said the actions against her were discriminatory because her male co-stars on the show were not similarly punished for making political statements.
“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,” said Carano’s lawyers in the suit. “And so it was with Carano.”
Disney and Lucasfilm did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Former Disney chief executive Bob Chapek addressed Carano’s firing at a March 2021 shareholder meeting, saying the company stands for “values of respect, values of decency, values of integrity and values of inclusion”.
Many of Carano’s controversial posts were on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.
Mr Musk in August offered to provide legal representation to people fired from their jobs over statements they made on X. The company said on Feb 6 it was honouring that commitment by backing Carano’s suit.
The actress was fired shortly after an Instagram post on Feb 10, 2021, in which she suggested that conservative supporters of former United States president Donald Trump were being treated like Jews during the Holocaust. But that followed a long trail of Twitter posts in which she expressed strong views on Covid-19 vaccines, gender identity and the outcome of the 2020 election.
X’s support for Carano comes months after Mr Musk was criticised for endorsing a post widely regarded as anti-Semitic. The owner of X said he agreed with a post accusing Jewish communities of promoting “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them”.
Mr Musk later apologised for the post.
Carano, who was in movies such as Fast & Furious 6 (2013) and Deadpool (2016), played a member of the Rebel Alliance called Cara Dune.
According to her suit, Cara was popular enough that Disney was planning a spin-off called Rangers Of The New Republic, which centred on the character. The actress was to star in the new show and would have been paid base compensation of between US$150,000 (S$201,000) and US$250,000 an episode under a six-year contract.
Carano claims that, after her February 2021 post, she was not brought back for Season 3 of The Mandalorian, and the new show was shelved.
She did not specify a damages amount she was seeking, but she said she suffered millions of dollars in losses. She is also seeking to be reinstated to her prior position.
In her suit, Carano highlighted social media posts by her Mandalorian co-stars, including lead actor Pedro Pascal, noting he previously compared Trump to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
She noted the frequent criticisms of Trump and conservatives by Mark Hamill, the Luke Skywalker actor who made a memorable guest appearance in The Mandalorian’s Season 2 finale.
“While Carano was fired, defendants took no action against male actors who took equally or more vigorous and controversial positions on social media,” she says in her suit. BLOOMBERG
