Explained: How Gina Carano ended up suing Disney after getting fired from The Mandalorian

Actress Gina Carano has filed a lawsuit backed by Elon Musk as she sues Disney and LucasFilm after she was fired in 2021 from The Mandolorian, on what she claims was wrongful termination and dismissal for sharing her “personal and political opinions.” But where did this lawsuit come from and how long has this saga been going on for? Here’s all the Gina Carano saga explained in full.

Initial backlash

Gina Carano starred as Cara Dune in the first two series of The Mandalorian – Disney’s Star Wars spin-off that stars Pedro Pascal in the titular role. In 2020, Gina Carano received backlash for not voicing support for Black Lives Matter. She also was asked by fans to put pronouns in her Twitter bio, and then updated it to say “beep/bop/boop”. After she was accused of transphobia for this, she apologised and said Pedro Pascal educated her on it.

The offensive Instagram post

In February 2021, Gina Carano shared a picture on Instagram that many people interpreted to be a post that compared being a Republican in America in the 2020s to the persecution of Jewish people in the Holocaust. The post has now been deleted. LucasFilm released a statement about the firing of Gina Carano following this, saying

“Gina Carano is not currently employed by LucasFilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

Variety also reported she’d been dropped by her talent agency.

The lawsuit

On February 6th, Gina Carano announced on Twitter / X that she was filing a lawsuit against Disney which is financially backed by Elon Musk and X Corp. She is seeking at least $75,000 in compensation damages.

In a lengthy tweet, Carano said “The truth is I was being hunted down from everything I posted to every post I liked because I was not in line with the acceptable narrative of the time. My words were consistently twisted to demonize & dehumanize me as an alt right wing extremist. It was a bullying smear campaign aimed at silencing, destroying & making an example out of me.

“The thing is I never even used aggressive language. I shared thought provoking quotes, pictures, memes & occasionally I used my own words, not with aggression but with respect & the occasional comedy to keep the mood light in dark times.

“Look with your own eyes at what I posted and ask yourself, for example, where did I compare Republicans to the Jewish people in the holocaust? I didn’t. Ask yourself why they were calling me a racist, was there any merit behind that or history of it whatsoever?  No. Look at why I was called a transphobe–for making droid noises from Star Wars? “Beep, bop, boop” was obviously directed to the online bullies and did not in any way denigrate transgender people.

“Were my questions about masks, lockdowns & forced vaccines ok to ask & push the subject into the light? Should we have been allowed to publicly discuss those topics at that time without being harassed or censored? Absolutely.”

Gina Carano also said X and Elon Musk reached out to her to offer financial support, and she was “honoured” to have it. Elon Musk has previously said he would financially support the lawsuit of anyone who has lost their job due to something they shared on his platform.

“As a sign of X Corp’s commitment to free speech, the online platform is proud to provide financial support for 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 Corp said in a statement.

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