Consumer Sues Comcast Over Trailers Advertising ‘Significant Role’ for Ana de Armas in Beatles Flick ‘Yesterday’

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Universal Studios parent Comcast Corporation faces a proposed class action that claims trailers for the 2019 movie “Yesterday” misleadingly touted that Ana de Armas would have a “significant role” that would “affect[] the plot’s outcome.” 

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The 10-page lawsuit out of Illinois contends that the trailers for the film, about an alternate universe in which the Beatles never existed, featured the Cuban-born actress, then “Hollywood’s fastest rising star,” as having a prominent role in the rom-com, specifically in a subplot involving “a love triangle with the film’s protagonist,” played by actor Himesh Patel. The filing says the trailer “capitalized” on de Armas’ “star buzz,” as reflected in “the intensity of internet searches for her name,” her selection to star in an upcoming James Bond film and media buzz-generating interest in her personal life. 

However, when “Yesterday” was released, de Armas “had no role in the film,” the lawsuit states.

The proposed class action says that when the plaintiff, a Glenview, Illinois resident, paid to see “Yesterday,” he expected, based on the film’s marketing, to see de Armas in the movie. The plaintiff would not have seen the movie, or would have paid less to see it, had he known de Armas’ role had been cut, the suit contests. 

“Plaintiff chose between Yesterday and other movies advertised as having leading stars, but which did not misrepresent the role of those stars in their respective films,” the case reads. 

According to a June 2019 report from CinemaBlend, “Yesterday” screenwriter Richard Curtis and director Danny Boyle “worked to drop 20 to 25% of the script in order to enhance other pieces of the narrative.” This included the erasure of a subplot involving a character to be played by de Armas, named Roxanne, even though she remained in the theatrical trailer for “Yesterday,” CinemaBlend wrote. 

In December, U.S. District Judge Steven Wilson ruled that two consumers could sue Universal for false advertising over de Armas’ inclusion in the “Yesterday” trailer and absence from the released film, the BBC reported. Per the BBC, the consumers argued that “they would not have paid money to rent the film if they had known the actress did not feature in it.” 

Had de Armas’ character been kept in “Yesterday,” she would have met protagonist Jack Malik on the set of James Corden’s talk show, where Malik would serenade her with the Beatles song “Something,” the BBC reports. De Armas was cut because, according to Curtis, “audiences did not like the idea of Patel’s character straying from his primary love interest, played by Lily James.” 

The lawsuit looks to cover all consumers in Illinois, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Alaska, West Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Utah who viewed “Yesterday” in any format during the applicable statute of limitations period. 

“Such persons expected de Armas was in Yesterday because she was a leading Hollywood star who was promoted as in the film and having a key role,” the complaint summarizes. “Defendant’s false, misleading, and deceptive representations and omissions are material in that they were and are likely to influence the decisions of moviegoers.” 

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