Actress Gina Carano is filing a lawsuit against Disney and Lucasfilm for wrongful termination, after losing her job in the mandalorian due to her political comments online. Carano was fired because of conservative comments posted on the platform X.
Carano announced her lawsuit on X Tuesday:
Today is an important day for me–I am filing a lawsuit against @lucasfilm & @Disney
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…— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) February 6, 2024
In response, X’s head of business operations Joe Benarroch wrote, “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.”
X has previously stated their intention to help fund the legal battles of those terminated after sharing opinions on the platform.
Until her termination, Carano, an ex-MMA fighter, played a starring role on the hit Disney show, “The Mandalorian,” part of the celebrated Star Wars franchise.
Disney and Lucasfilm fired her in February of 2021 in response to a post in which she warned Americans that the Holocaust was enabled by those in power encouraging people to hate particular groups, comparing the state turning people against their neighbors to modern political polarization.
Lucasfilm accused Carano of “denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities,” calling the post “abhorrent and unacceptable.” Which seemed to miss the meaning of her post entirely, and in fact, acted as evidence to support her point.
Carano has pointed out that male co-star Pedro Pascal has suffered no repercussions for equally inflammatory liberal posts, such as comparing former President Donald Trump to Hitler.
“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 begins, referencing the opening text seen in Star Wars movies.
Carano’s fans have expressed support on X, with countless posts declaring “I stand with Gina Carano,” and similar statements gracing the platform since the lawsuit announcement.
Should Carano’s lawsuit prove successful, it will be a win for free speech. We can only hope that companies will start to think twice before firing employees for their opinions.
