Gina Carano Just Won the Biggest Fight of Her Career With a TKO Over Disney, Who Even Sound Like They're Hiring Her Back

Alberto E. Rodriguez. Getty Images.

Gina Carano (pictured here with the man responsible for some of the best portrayals of fighting sport athletes of all time, the late, great Carl Weathers) has been in some scrapes before. When you follow up a 12-1-1 career in Muay Thai with a 7-1-0 stint in MMA that includes three by knockout and one by submission, you don't have to prove you know a few things about how to beat down an opponent.

Which is a skillset she's always brought to the screen. Convincingly, as you might imagine. For example, The Mandalorian, which she starred in along side Weathers and obscure, unknown, little-used character actor Pedro Pascal, who's still trying to catch a break in Hollywood:

Not that anyone's claiming that Carano the actress is the next Dame Judi Dench or will appearing as Lady MacBeth any time soon. But when in comes to realistically kicking alien ass in a far off galaxy, there's no one better. 

But she just took on the toughest opponent anyone in the entertainment business possibly could. The joint forces of the biggest media conglomerate in the English-speaking world and the angry mob who are professionally offended by everything. This was from about 18 months ago:

… 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.”   

Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is I was being hunted down from everything I posted to every post I liked because I was not in line with the acceptable narrative of the time. My words were consistently twisted to demonize & dehumanize me as an alt right wing extremist. It was a bullying smear campaign aimed at silencing, destroying & making an example out of me.   

The thing is I never even used aggressive language. I shared thought provoking quotes, pictures, memes & occasionally I used my own words, not with aggression but with respect & the occasional comedy to keep the mood light in dark times. 

  

Look with your own eyes at what I posted and ask yourself, for example, where did I compare Republicans to the Jewish people in the holocaust? I didn’t. Ask yourself why they were calling me a racist, was there any merit behind that or history of it whatsoever?  No. Look at why I was called a transphobe--for making droid noises from Star Wars? “Beep, bop, boop” was obviously directed to the online bullies and did not in any way denigrate transgender people.   

Were my questions about masks, lockdowns & forced vaccines ok to ask & push the subject into the light? Should we have been allowed to publicly discuss those topics at that time without being harassed or censored? Absolutely.  

Hollywood says they support female representation & equal rights. Why then were my male co-stars permitted to speak without harassment & re-education courses or termination, but I was not afforded the same right to exercise my freedom of speech.   

Artists do not sign away our rights as American citizens when we enter into employment. I have spoken to all my co-stars since I was fired & there is nothing but care and kind words between us. I respect their right to free speech & do not have to think the same on every issue to be their friends & work with them & I know they feel the same towards me.   

A couple months ago @ElonMusk tweeted that if you had been fired from using the platform (X) for exercising your right to free speech, he would like to offer these people legal representation. Quite the noble offer, but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought anyone would take on my case against Lucasfilm/Disney.  Still, I did respond back “I think I qualify” & thousands of people agreed--but I did not expect anything.   

To my surprise, a few months ago I received an email from a lawyer who had been hired by X to look into my story & many others. Turns out after sending them as much information as I could gather these past few months, my now lawyers & X believe whole-heartedly in my case & are moving forward.   

I would like to express my deepest gratitude & thank you to @ElonMusk & @X for giving me an opportunity to bring my case to light. 

As for me, I would love to pick up where I left off & continue my journey of creating & participating in story-telling, which is my utmost passion & everything I worked so hard for. It has been difficult to move forward with the lies & labels stuck on me, backed & encouraged by the most powerful entertainment company in the world.  I am grateful someone has come to my defense in such a powerful way & look forward to clearing my name.   

Thank you to all the people who have supported me & made your voices heard. I pray God blesses each & every one of you.   

With love,   

Gina Carano For inquiries contact: CaranoLawsuit@schaerrjaffe.com

Now, a few things about this. First, that for all Disney's happy talk about supporting female representation & equal rights:

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… that support stopped when it came to selling movie tickets in certain foreign markets that didn't share their commitment to celebrating diversity:

Nor, apparently, an actress who embodies the traits they'd tried to write into all their female characters, from Rey to Mulan to even Snow White. Gina Carano actually is brave, tough, resourceful, and a strong, independent, empowered female. Whom they nevertheless were only too happy to professionally kill off like she was Bambi's mother the moment a few keyboard warriors took offense to her memes and jokes. 

And it turned out to be one of those situations where you say, "Ever notice how you come across somebody once in a while you shouldn't have fucked with?"

To be more specific, that's Gina Carano. Or to be even more specific, that's Carano backed up by Elon Musk's legal team and the unlimited billable hours he can afford:

Source -  Lucasfilm and the Walt Disney Company have reached a mutual agreement in their legal dispute with Gina Carano following her firing from “The Mandalorian.”

A Lucasfilm spokesperson said in a statement provided to Variety, “The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Gina Carano to resolve the issues in her pending lawsuit against the companies. Ms. Carano was always well respected by her directors, co-stars and staff, and she worked hard to perfect her craft while treating her colleagues with kindness and respect. With this lawsuit concluded, we look forward to identifying opportunities to work together with Ms. Carano in the near future.”    

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To me the real issue is not just that some athlete-turned actress lost her job over some internet posts and sued to get a payday and possibly hired back. If if was limited to that, I wouldn't declare it blog-worthy and move onto some NFL news. But this speaks to a much larger narrative that affects all of us. 

Carano got fired during a point in history where where seemingly everyone was walking a razor's edge, where one slip of the thumb, one poorly chosen word, one joke getting taken the wrong way, or one shit post could ruin your career and your life. Where all the power was in the hands of the people interpreting or misinterpreting the meaning, not the person who posted the message. With no context. No attempt to determine what you were actually trying to say. Just swarms of anonymous drones flying around the socials looking for something to be outraged about so they can score another righteous (in their twisted minds) kill. They got Carano in their crosshairs, and Disney fed her to the hyenas like she was Scar. The difference being, she didn't do anything that could be considered a fireable offense except upset the easily upsettable. 

So hopefully her victory is a turning point. A sign that these mega corporations are done bending the knee to the mob. That they practice of Ritual Human Career Sacrifice just to make a problem go away is a thing of the past. If we've learned anything, it's you don't have to capitulate to a few vocal 1s and 0s online. That explanations and apologies not only don't do any good, they only lead to more explaining and more apologizing. 

Here's hoping I'm right. Not everyone is a fighting sports champion backed by the richest man in the world. But this is a victory for everyone except the ones who demanded she be fired. And if Jon Favreau sneaks her Cara Dune character into his The Mandalorian and Grogu movie, audiences will go nuts. And it would officially mark the end of the Cancel Culture Era.