Gina Carano, the ousted star of Disney’s The Mandalorian television show, sued the network Tuesday, February 7, for firing her for her conservative Twitter presence. Elon Musk is funding the lawsuit, which leans into the Star Wars universe with its first sentence:
“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.”
Carano announced the suit with a post on X/Twitter, saying she responded to a Tweet by Elon Musk from months ago where he offered representation for those fired for their free speech on the platform. She wrote, “Quite the noble offer, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought anyone would take on my case against Lucasfilm/Disney.” Musk has hired the high-powered law firm Schaerr Jaffe to prosecute her case. The firm wrote that Carano “was bullied and harassed on social media for refusing to support movements and ideologies with which she did not agree and for raising questions on various issues of the day, including such issues as Black Lives Matter, Covid lockdowns, election irregularities and transgender pronouns.”
Disney Puts Politics Over Art and Profits, Too
When pressed to publish her preferred pronouns on her Twitter profile page, she announced they were “boop/bop/beep,” a reference to sounds a droid from the Star Wars universe might make. Ms. Carano’s firing was announced via a tweet from Lucasfilm, the producer of The Mandalorian, a live-action TV show based on Star Wars by George Lucas. Carano appeared in two seasons of the show, and her character was to be the focus of a spinoff series Disney had already approved, Rangers of the New Republic. But Carano was not woke; she was conservative and openly so—the only actual scarlet letter in Hollywood.
“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm & there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural & religious identities are abhorrent & unacceptable.”
That was the tweet canceling her and her career. If they simply didn’t go forward with projects where contracts weren’t completed, such as the new series, that would be one thing. By impugning Ms. Carano’s character, Disney placed itself in legal jeopardy. The lawsuit is a 59-page indictment of Disney’s behavior against Carano, including claims of sex discrimination for treating her much more harshly than male actors, as well as wrongful termination. It was filed in federal court in California, and asks for compensatory and punitive damages.
Han Shot First
George Lucas sold his Lucasfilm company, including the Star Wars movie franchise rights, to Disney in 2012. While he presumably had nothing to do with Disney’s firing of Carano, Lucas infamously changed scenes from his 1977 classic, Star Wars, for the film’s 20th anniversary in 1997. Back when woke referred to actual sleeping, the director made a politically correct change so that the film’s antihero, Han Solo, appeared more justified in a barroom shooting.
