Gina Carano‘s legal battle over her firing from The Mandalorian could feature a star-studded cast of witnesses, including Pedro Pascal, Jon Favreau and ex-Disney chief executive Bob Chapek.
In a joint filing from the ex-MMA fighter and Disney, Carano pointed to those names as potential witnesses that could be called to testify in her case. She also included Bear Grylls, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and Lynne Hale, the engineer of the publicity campaign behind Star Wars.
The July 26 court document previews issues to be raised in the trial — tentatively scheduled for Sept. 25, 2025 — such as whether Carano was under contract on Feb. 10, 2021, when Disney purportedly terminated her for voicing right-wing opinions on social media.
Another contested issue is whether Carano was treated differently than her male co-stars. In her lawsuit, filed in February, she alleged that Disney and Lucasfilm turned a blind eye to others, who she said made offensive and denigrating posts directed toward Republicans, while she was allegedly fired for her cultural and religious beliefs. She pointed to Pascal’s 2017 post comparing former President Donald Trump to Hitler.
Other posts from Pascal cited in the lawsuit include one of him comparing the United States response to those entering the country illegally to Germany’s concentration camps.
The Mandalorian creator Favreau, meanwhile, will presumably be called to testify on whether Disney greenlit plans to a new spinoff entitled Rangers of the New Republic that would feature Carano’s Cara Dune as one of its lead characters. Kennedy in 2020 confirmed production of the title.
Grylls may be called to testify over allegations that Disney pulled an episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls that featured Carano after she was terminated.
In the filing, Disney pushed back on Carano’s list of witnesses while saying that it may call Lucasfilm vice president of animation and live action development Carrie Beck and Disney executive vice president of communications to testify.
The development comes after a federal judge last week rebuffed Disney’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett rejected arguments that Carano’s discrimination claims are barred by the First Amendment, finding that the actress may have been terminated from the series in retaliation for holding disfavored political beliefs. Disney had argued that its entitled to protect its speech in the Star Wars series from association with views that it and many viewers considered offensive and contrary to its message, which it said includes respect, integrity and inclusion.
With her ousting from the Star Wars universe, Carano potentially lost out on millions of dollars. The standard contract for a series regular on other spinoffs is for roughly six years at a base salary beginning at $150,000 to $250,000 per episode, with each season consisting of up to ten episodes.
Source link