Gina Carano’s lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiary Lucasfilm has once again come to fruition.
A Los Angeles federal court denied Disney’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Carano. Banned from Disney+’s Star Wars-related streaming series The Mandalorian Three years ago, he likened the political situation in the United States to the Holocaust in a social media post.
U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, an appointee of President Biden, on Wednesday rejected the company’s argument that Disney had the right to “separate its artistic message from Ms. Carano’s outspoken ‘political beliefs.'”
The Washington Post has reached out to Disney for comment.
“I am moved to tears,” Carano wrote on her X account on Wednesday following the verdict.
“After three and a half grueling years, I have been given the opportunity to stand in court and redeem myself before a judge and my peers. I am very grateful for this opportunity.”
Carano is represented by lawyers hired by Elon Musk’s social media company X.
In February 2021, Carano was fired from the cast of “The Mandalorian” after she drew outrage on social media for slamming COVID-19 lockdowns and claiming conservatives were being persecuted.
Carano faced heavy criticism after posting that Jews were beaten in the streets not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbours and even children.
The actor continued: “History is edited so that most people today don’t understand that the reason Nazi soldiers were able to easily round up thousands of Jews was because the government first got their neighbors to hate them simply because they were Jewish. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”
Carano, who played the recurring character Cara Dune in the Star Wars films, later deleted the post, but it was shared widely online and the hashtag “#FireGinaCarano” began trending.
Her character appeared in several episodes of the second season of “The Mandalorian,” a series that follows a bounty hunter and his quest to unite a powerful young Force user with a Jedi Knight.
Carano, a former mixed martial artist who played a character on the TV show “Dune” who defeated opponents using a combination of heavy weaponry and her fists, has been criticized for social media posts mocking the wearing of masks during the pandemic and for allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
She also listed her social media profiles as “beep/bop/boop” and mocked the use of gender pronouns.
Earlier this year, Carano published a lengthy post on X in which she praised Tesla CEO Musk for his “noble offer” to financially support her lawsuit.
“I never dreamed that anyone would take on my lawsuit against Lucasfilm/Disney,” she wrote.
“I want to sincerely thank and thank @ElonMusk and @X for the opportunity to bring my case to light,” Carano wrote.
“Her firing was clearly the result of social media posts and she will likely be able to prove that at trial,” Rich Schonstein, a partner at Manhattan-based law firm Tarter Krinsky & Drogin, told The Washington Post.
“The larger issue is whether the trial court’s ruling on this law will survive appeal, as it raises fundamental questions about an employee’s right to make public statements that may not be consistent with their employer’s position.”
With post wire
