Gina Carano, Who Was Fired for ‘Abhorrent’ Antisemitic Comments, Sues Disney for Wrongful Termination

Gina Carano got herself axed from Disney+'s The Mandalorian thanks to her right-wing rhetoric online. Now, she's suing with some help from...Elon Musk.

By Audra Heinrichs | February 7, 2024 | 7:45pm

Entertainment Entertainment

Gina Carano, Who Was Fired for ‘Abhorrent’ Antisemitic Comments, Sues Disney for Wrongful Termination

In 2021, Gina Carano was fired from The Mandalorian after she compared being conservative in America to being a Jewish person in Nazi Germany in an Instagram story. That post was just one of an exceedingly problematic series. In the preceding months, Carano was accused of poking fun at the usage of gender pronouns, and had shared speculation of voter fraud in the 2020 election, and anti-mask memes on Twitter. Now, three whole years later, the actor and ex-MMA fighter is suing Disney and Lucasfilm for sexual discrimination and wrongful termination. And, of course, Elon Musk is involved.

Carano filed the complaint on Tuesday, claiming that, not only was she “harassed and defamed” for her differing opinions but that her male co-stars—namely, Pedro Pascal and Mark Hamill—were empowered to share defamatory statements about rightwing politicians without retribution. Carano is seeking $75,000 in damages and to be reinstated on the series.

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“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 filing reads—hilariously borrowing from Star Wars vernacular. “And so it was with Carano.”

“The rule of law still reigns over the Defendants’ empire…and Carano has returned to demand that they be held accountable for their bullying, discriminatory, and retaliatory actions—actions that inflicted not only substantial emotional harm, but millions of dollars in lost income,” the suit adds.

When Carano was fired from The Mandalorian in 2021, she spoke fondly of her co-star, Pascal, telling Ben Shapiro: “We had an agreement after we realized we were a little bit politically different. We had an agreement that, first and foremost, you’re a human being. And you’re my friend first.” In the suit, however, she claims that she was unjustly treated compared to her male co-stars who are still regulars on the show: “Her male co-stars were not disciplined, let alone terminated in a way to destroy their careers even though some would find their statements ‘abhorrent.’” (When she was fired, Lucasfilm said it was due to her “abhorrent” behavior on social media.)

To make matters even cornier, Carano’s suit is being funded by Elon Musk per his 2023 promise to bankroll the legal action taken by any person claiming discrimination by an employer for their actions on X.

“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,” Joe Benarroch, head of X’s business operations, said in a statement to Variety.

In her own statement regarding the suit on Twitter, Carano asserted that her thoughts had been deliberately misinterpreted “to demonize & dehumanize [her] as an alt right wing extremist.”

Months before she was fired, Carano appeared to mock gender pronouns by putting “boop/bop/beep” in her Twitter bio, then claimed it was “obviously directed to the online bullies and did not in any way denigrate transgender people.” Hmmm. I’ll note that back in 2021, Carano wrote that while she wasn’t against trans people, they needed “to find less abusive representation.”

“I would love to pick up where I left off & continue my journey of creating & participating in story-telling, which is my utmost passion & everything I worked so hard for,” Carano concluded in her statement. If you ask me, between this suit and starring in a Shapiro-produced Western, it very much seems like she never stopped participating in storytelling…