The Discrimination Suit Gina Carano Brought (with Elon Musk's Help) Against Disney Just Scored a Big Win

Disney+. Shutterstock Images.

Like I admitted to back in February when Gina Carano announced she was suing Disney Corporation for firing her from The Mandalorian:

I love Star Wars a lot. But Disney Star Wars? Not so much:

Obviously this is important. This stuff matters. Otherwise I'd just be a grown man with a family and a mortgage obsessing over a stupid kids' story about space wizards with magic powers and flashlight swords running around with robots and a giant ape. 

And you can count me among the legion of fans whose loyalty has been tested to the breaking point by the lazy, amateurish, fan fiction dreck posing as Star Wars canon that Disney has been squeezing out since it paid a couple of billion dollars for the rights to make George Lucas go away so they could ruin his creation. Some of it has been so bad, some of us started looking back with grudging admiration to even Jar Jar Binks. He was insufferable and possibly even racist. But he never had to utter lines like "Palpatine returned … somehow" or "Chewie was on the other transport." Those were written by Jar Jar Abrams while Lucas stood back with his hands up to show his fingerprints aren't on that  Bantha poodoo.

Season 1 of The Mandalorian was an exception. Thanks to the "Outlaw loner-type who lives by his own moral code finds an emotional connection with another living thing and becomes its protector" story line. Which was right out of a Sergio Leone or John Ford Western. But also for the side characters, like Carl Weathers (RIP. The Force is with him, and he is one with The Force) and Carano's Cara Dune. 

Not that she's ever going to be mistaken for Meryl Streep. But there are few if any actresses in the industry who can hold a Light Saber to her when it comes to being convincing while kicking henchmen ass all over the Outer Rim. 

Yet she got fired for sending out some Tweets that some people found bothersome. Despite all of Disney's lip-service about being big on female empowerment:

Which brings me at long last to the latest on Carano's lawsuit:

Source - Gina Carano said she was 'moved to tears' after a judge ruled that her lawsuit against Disney can proceed, after the company tried to have it dismissed.

The actress, 42, sued the mega-entertainment brand for discrimination in February 2024, with the assistance of Elon Musk, over her 2021 firing from the Star Wars series Mandalorian.

Carano had played Cara Dune for the first two seasons of the hit show, which streams on Disney+. She was fired after she compared the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany to conservatives in modern America in a social media post.

On Wednesday, following the court ruling, she shared a lengthy Instagram statement, as well as a clip from her 2021 interview with the Daily Wire.

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…  As per legal documents obtained by Deadline, California-based Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett denied Disney's motion for dismissal. 

'Defendants have not identified any evidence—in the Complaint or otherwise—to substantiate a claim that they employ public-facing actors for the purpose of promoting the ‘values of respect,’ ‘decency,’ ‘integrity,’ or ‘inclusion,"' the ruling read.

'Accordingly, Defendants’ invocation of the supposedly detrimental effects of Plaintiff’s ‘mere presence’ as one of Defendants’ employees lacks constitutional import.'

Say what you will about Carano's Tweets or what you think of her comparing anything going on today to the Holocaust. But it's hard for Disney to argue they have the kind of moral high ground Obi Wan used to defeat Anakin on Mustafar when they do stuff like this to John Boyega:

Or to claim they employ actors in order to promote ‘values of respect,’ ‘decency,’ ‘integrity,’ or ‘inclusion,' and not, say, in order to make galaxies of money. Hell, look how long it took them to fire Jonathan Majors when he was on video committing DV. Because Disney-owned Marvel Studios had the entire next phase of its cinematic universe invested in his Kang character they had already long established. If if was really about these abstract, noble-sounding principles they stand on, they'd have cut Majors loose at the first sign of trouble. But Carano's was a supporting character and much easier to jettison. 

That is, until she did what she did during her entire MMA career: She fought back. With the help of the richest man in the world. We still don't know if her case is a winning one. But the very fact she scored a victory against the world's biggest media empire is a good sign. She's still punching above her weight on this. But the judge's just gave her the biggest round of her life.