Gina Carano’s lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiary Lucasfilm lives to see another day.
A Los Angeles federal judge has denied Disney’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit which was filed by Carano after she was ousted from the Disney+ “Star Wars”-linked streaming series “The Mandalorian” three years ago over social media posts comparing the political climate in the US to the Holocaust.
US District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett, who was appointed to the bench by President Biden, rejected Disney’s claim Wednesday that it had a “right to dissociate its own artistic message from Carano’s outspoken ‘political beliefs.’”
The Post has sought comment from Disney.
“I am moved to tears,” Carano wrote on her X account on Wednesday in response to the ruling.
“After a brutal 3 1/2 years, I am being given the opportunity to move forward in the court of law before the judge and my peers to clear my name. I am so grateful for this opportunity.”
Carano is being represented by attorneys who were hired by Elon Musk’s social media company X.
In February 2021, Carano was fired from the cast of “The Mandalorian” after she sparked outrage on social media, where she denounced COVID lockdowns and claimed that conservatives were being persecuted.
Carano fell under heavy criticism after she posted that “Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…. even by children.”
The actor continued to say, “Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”
Carano, who played the recurring character Cara Dune on the “Star Wars” series, deleted the post, but it was widely shared online and spurred the #FireGinaCarano hashtag to trend.
Her character appeared in several episodes of the second season of “The Mandalorian,” a series about a bounty hunter and his quest to unite a powerful, young user of the Force with a Jedi Knight.
Carano, a former mixed martial artist whose Dune character used a mix of heavy weapons and her fists to best opponents, had been criticized for social media posts that mocked mask wearing during the pandemic and alleged voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election.
She also mocked the use of gender pronouns, listing “beep/bop/boop” in her social media bio.
Earlier this year, Carano wrote a lengthy post on X in which she praised Musk, the Tesla CEO, for his “noble offer” to financially back her lawsuit.
She wrote that “never in my wildest dreams would I have thought anyone would take on my case against Lucasfilm/Disney.”
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude & thank you to @ElonMusk & @X for giving me an opportunity to bring my case to light,” Carano wrote.
“It seems apparent that her termination resulted from her social media posts, and she is likely to be able to prove that at trial,” Rich Schoenstein, a trial attorney and partner with Manhattan-based law firm Tarter Krinsky & Drogin, told The Post.
“The bigger question is whether the trial court’s decision on the law will survive on appeal, as this raises a fundamental issue about the rights of employees to make public statements that might not align with the positions of their employers.”
With Post wires
