The Walt Disney Company has written a check — and all but issued a public apology — to make one of its messiest legal battles disappear.
Disney and its Lucasfilm division said Thursday that they had resolved a dispute with the actress Gina Carano, who sued the entertainment companies for wrongful termination from “The Mandalorian” in 2023. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“Ms. Carano was always well respected by her directors, co-stars and staff, and she worked hard to perfect her craft while treating her colleagues with kindness and respect,” Lucasfilm said in an unsigned statement. “With this lawsuit concluded, we look forward to identifying opportunities to work together with Ms. Carano in the near future.”
Ms. Carano said in a post on X that she was “excited to flip the page and move onto the next chapter.” She added, “I am humbled and grateful to God for His love and grace in this outcome.”
A trial had been scheduled to start next month.
Ms. Carano filed the suit after Lucasfilm dropped her from the hit show “The Mandalorian” for posting conspiracy theories and right-wing views, some of which were seen as transphobic and antisemitic, on social media.
Her firing caused an outcry among many conservatives, who said Disney was punishing Ms. Carano for exercising her First Amendment rights. Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, where Ms. Carano had published some of her posts, said last year that he would pay her legal costs. (Ms. Carano thanked him on Thursday in her X post, saying he had paid even though they had never met.)
The settlement comes amid a political move to the right at the world’s largest entertainment company. Over the past year, Disney has backed away from some of the progressive messaging it adopted in shows and films earlier in the decade. Like other companies, Disney also changed the diversity component of how it rates its executives and makes compensation decisions.
In December, Disney agreed to donate $15 million to President Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum to settle a defamation case he brought against ABC News. The news network also agreed to pay Mr. Trump an additional $1 million in legal fees. Many media law experts and some of Disney’s own employees accused the company of needlessly bowing to Mr. Trump.
Ms. Carano’s character was written out of “The Mandalorian” in 2021. At the time, Lucasfilm, the Disney division that makes the “Star Wars”-affiliated series, said in a statement that her “social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
United Talent Agency also dropped Ms. Carano. Her acting career, which had included small roles in “Fast & Furious 6” (2013) and “Deadpool” (2016), came to an abrupt halt.
Her suit sought a court order forcing Disney and Lucasfilm to weave her “Mandalorian” character back into episodes and recast her for the part. (Employed as a “guest actor,” she was paid $25,000 for each episode in which she appeared.) She was also suing for punitive damages.
Ms. Carano’s lawsuit stated: “A short time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, defendants made it clear that only one orthodoxy in thought, speech or action was acceptable in their empire, and that those who dared to question or failed to fully comply would not be tolerated. And so it was with Carano.”
Ms. Carano, a former mixed-martial artist who hails from a prominent Nevada casino family, also criticized Disney in her lawsuit for pressuring her to have a lengthy Zoom meeting with an L.G.B.T. rights organization. The forced meeting came after she posted that her pronouns were “boop/bop/beep.”
Disney had tried to get a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit on First Amendment grounds. In a motion, Disney said it was “entitled to protect its creative speech in the ‘Star Wars’ series from association with views Disney and many viewers (and potential viewers) considered offensive and contrary to Disney’s values.”
The company lost that bid. An attempt by Disney to appeal the decision and delay the case also failed.
