A federal judge ruled this week that movie studios can be sued under false advertising laws if they release deceptive movie trailers.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson issued the ruling in a case involving the 2019 film “Yesterday”. Two Ana de Armas fans filed a lawsuit in January, alleging that they had rented “Yesterday” after seeing de Armas in the trailer, only to discover that she was cut out of the final film.
They each paid $3.99 to rent “Yesterday” on Amazon Prime and are seeking at least $5 million as representatives of a class of movie customers.
Universal argued that accepting such a case could open the door to a parade of lawsuits from dissatisfied filmgoers, who could make a subjective claim that a film did not live up to the expectations created by the trailer.
De Armas was originally supposed to as in “Yesterday” as a love interest for the film’s protagonist, played by Himesh Patel. Richard Curtis later admitted that de Armas was cut because audiences didn’t like the idea of Patel’s character straying from his primary love interest, played by Lily James.