Lucasfilm faces a breach of contract lawsuit from producer Karyn McCarthy over her firing from the upcoming Disney+ “Star Wars” show “The Acolyte.” McCarthy is suing for monetary damages in the millions. She alleges “bad faith and wrongful termination” and the suit as a “last resort” after a “bizarre and unfounded termination.” According to the case, McCarthy boarded “The Acolyte” in April 2022 as an executive producer and was dismissed from the show two weeks later.
“For over 35 years, Karyn has hired thousands of people for several major studios on many high-profile projects. She knows when a deal is a deal. Throughout her entire career — from office assistant, location manager, unit production manager, and eventually producer — she has prioritized fairness, kindness, and human decency,” Allen said in his statement. “Even after the bizarre and unfounded termination, Karyn approached Lucasfilm without a lawyer to get paid for what she was owed. Lucasfilm responded with lawyers and lies. Filing suit was the last resort.”
“Two weeks later, without explanation, without reason, without justification, Lucasfilm told McCarthy it wanted out of the deal,” the filing reads. “By this time, the Apple offer was gone – Apple had to move on and found another executive producer for ‘Sugar.’ McCarthy now had neither deal.”
The lawsuit further alleges that after McCarthy asked for compensation for her two weeks of work, Lucasfilm denied that there was any agreement, ignoring that she had already begun work and had received an offer and a memorandum of agreement. Instead, the studio allegedly offered her only $5,000 for a single day’s work, but McCarthy rejected it and allegedly received no compensation for her work on the series.
“McCarthy is therefore forced to bring this action to hold Lucasfilm accountable for its egregious breach of their agreement, its bad faith denial of that agreement, and for the statutory penalties McCarthy is entitled for its failure to pay her for her work,” the lawsuit continues.
– Excerpt from an article for Deadline by Wilson Chapman. Read the full article here.
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