Universal Sued Over Yesterday’s Alleged Deceptive Marketing Regarding Ana De Armas

Two big-time Ana de Armas fans aren’t happy that they rented Yesterday thinking she was in it, and have sued Universal over it. Variety reports that Conor Woulfe and Peter Michael Rosza filed a class action lawsuit against the studio, alleging that the studio engaged in deceptive marketing by featuring the Knives Out and No Time to Die actress in the trailer for the 2019 film despite cutting her from the final movie.

Woulfe and Rosza allege that they both paid $3.99 to rent the movie on Amazon Prime based on de Armas’ presence in the trailer, where she appears in a clip with lead star Hamish Patel. The film stars Patel as Jack Malik, who undergoes an incident which puts him in a situation where he’s the only person who remembers the Beatles and proceeds to use their songs to become a star.

The subplot involving the de Arma’s character Roxane would have involved her meeting Patel’s Jack Malik on the set of James Cordon’s late-night show. They begin a romance after Jack performs “Something” on the show. The scenes were removed because it would have been redundant to include a secondary love interest after Jack’s main interest as played by Lily James.

The lawsuit argues that “Because consumers were promised a movie with Ana De Armas by the trailer for Yesterday, but did not receive a movie with any appearance of Ana de Armas at all, such consumers were not provided with any value for their rental or purchase.” It is seeking at least $5 million on behalf of any affected consumers.

As Variety notes, a similar lawsuit was filed back in 2011 against the movie Drive, arguing that the trailer was deceptive because it presented the film as a “high speed action driving film.” That case was dismissed on appeal because, as the Michigan court stated, “A review of the trailer demonstrates that it is not particularly inconsistent with the content of the film. Every scene displayed in the preview also appeared in the film.”