Disney
Backed by Twitter owner Elon Musk, former The Mandalorian actress Gina Carano recently sued Disney and Lucasfilm for wrongful discharge and sex discrimination.
Carano portrayed the heroic character Cara Dune in the first two seasons of The Mandalorian. She was also set to feature in the since-canceled spinoff series Rangers of the New Republic.
In a recent filing aiming to dismiss Carano’s suit, Disney said that the former UFC fighter and actress “trivialized the Holocaust” by comparing it to conservatives being criticized.
Disney states that Carano was not wrongfully terminated and that she was fired because she “publicly trivialized the Holocaust by comparing criticism of political conservatives to the annihilation of millions of Jewish people —notably, not ‘thousands'” and that was the “final straw for Disney,” according to Deadline.
Daniel Petrocelli, the lawyer representing Disney in the lawsuit, says that the case should be thrown out “on the grounds that Disney has a constitutional right not to associate its artistic expression with Carano’s speech, such that the First Amendment provides a complete defense to Carano’s claims.”
When Carano announced the Musk-backed lawsuit in early February, her version of events stated that she was “consistently dehumanized” and the victim of a “bullying smear campaign aimed at silencing, destroying and making an example out of me.”
The post in question came in 2021 when Carano wrote on her Instagram Stories:
“Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldier could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them for simply being Jews. How is that any different than hating someone for their political views?”
Lucasfilm announced her firing from The Mandalorian on that very same day: February 10, 2021.
Disney had enough. The same day Carano grotesquely trivialized the Holocaust as comparable to sharp political disagreements, Lucasfilm announced that ‘Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future.
As for The Mandalorian, the third and most recent season was released in 2023 and had a significantly milder reception in comparison to its first two seasons. A feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, is currently scheduled to release in the summer of 2026.