Mandalorian actress Gina Carano settles with Disney over firing

Actress Gina Carano has settled her lawsuit against Disney and Lucasfilm after she was fired from Star Wars franchise spin-off The Mandalorian.

She was dropped from the cast in 2021 following comments she made comparing being a Republican in the US to being a Jew during the Holocaust.

Ms Carano, a former MMA fighter who played Cara Dune in the Disney+ series, shared the news of the settlement on X, writing “I hope this brings some healing to the force.”

The agreement, which has not been made public, comes after her case gained support and funding from Elon Musk.

Ms Carano described the settlement as the “best outcome for all parties involved,” adding she was “excited to flip the page and move onto the next chapter”.

She also thanked Musk, saying she’d never met the tech billionaire but he stepped in to do this “Good Samaritan deed for me in funding my lawsuit”.

“Yes, I’m smiling”, she signed off.

The actress originally sued for wrongful termination and sexual discrimination, claiming that two of her male co-stars had made similar posts and faced no penalty.

She had sought $75,000 (£60,000) in damages and to be recast in the popular series.

Lucasfilm had condemned her comments in 2021 for “denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities”.

In a statement released since the settlement, the production company said that it looks forward to “identifying opportunities to work together”.

The company described Ms Carano as someone who “was always well respected by her directors, co-stars, and staff. She worked hard to perfect her craft while treating her colleagues with kindness and respect,” it added.

Ms Carano is a former mixed martial arts fighter and has faced pushback in the past for deriding mask-wearing policies during the Covid pandemic and making false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 US presidential election, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden.