Gina Carano Sues Disney And Lucasfilm With The Help Of Elon Musk

File this under “headlines you never expected to read”… but Gina Carano is suing Disney and Lucasfilm with the financial backing of Elon Musk. Musk had offered to help anyone who got fired over voicing their opinions on X / Twitter previously and apparently he was serious about it. Click through for a discussion!

Now whatever you think of Gina Carano and whether or not it was stupid or at least unwise of her not to stop posting certain things on social media after being asked by Lucasfilm… and no matter what your political affiliation is, it is easy to see how Lucasfilm punished Carano pretty harshly for what basically boils down to silly tweets or posts on Instagram. Unlike Chuck Wendig, who was fired from writing Star Wars books and comics several years ago, she never demanded that anyone be put into a wood chipper (he actually said that on Twitter about Republicans), unlike Pedro Pascal she never labeled any one group as “Nazis” or whatever. Pascal did delete his post when asked, however. Carano, among other things, questioned the effectiveness of masks during Corona, she also said (on Instagram) that back in the 1930s and 40s the Nazis only ever came into a position where they could kill millions of Jews, because they managed to make neighbors hate Jews first, and she asked how that is any different from hating someone for having a different political opinion. One can question the validity of the arguments, but the real question is if this was really a good reason to fire her.

And now, years later, Carano has decided to sue Disney and Lucasfilm, in her post on X she hints at having some difficulty pursuing her Hollywood career after the statements made about her by Disney/Lucasfilm, Lucasfilm tweeted back then that Carano’s social media posts are “abhorrent and unacceptable”.

Carano certainly does not expect to get rehired, even if her lawsuit states that she wants exactly that, but it is certainly impossible under the current regime at Lucasfilm and Disney, but financial compensation is almost certainly what she wants. Her termination ended a career that would have made her the main star of a new Star Wars series, “Rangers of the New Republic”, and she certainly would have had more appearances on The Mandalorian and possibly even in the movie, not even mentioning the convention circuit. All good money. All Carano has to show for after her firing are two low budget movies, like the western “Terror on the Prairie” which was produced by the Daily Wire or the rather inane “My Son Hunter” movie distributed by Breitbart TV. She is certainly a persona non grata now in Hollywood and what are considered right wing or even alt right production companies are the only ones willing to hire her, but they do of course lack the funds and the movies are very niche.

While some people who actually made (hateful) racist slurs, like Mel Gibson, can sometimes make somewhat of a comeback, Carano has, in comparison to Gibson, been shunned by Hollywood for what amounts to mostly just a triviality. Ultimately Carano did not want to stop posting on social media, she also did not want to take a mandatory re-education course (according to her post on X) – and thus she was terminated.

Again, it is one thing to question the wisdom of her decision not to comply, considering the career that was at stake here, but it is another thing not to see how Lucasfilm (and Hollywood in general) is still the home of double standards and is – at least on a surface level – very much left leaning and how Carano was punished very harshly for what basically boils down to voicing at times maybe silly, but still basically mostly harmless opinions, but which all are conservative talking points.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this turns out. At least Carano won’t have to worry about paying the laywers, taking on Disney / Lucasfilm is no small task, after all, but Musk’s money is virtually limitless. And of course Musk himself has some beef with Disney (after they and others withdrew their ad money from X), he is a supporter of investor Peltz who seeks three seats on the Disney board and who is very much dissatisfied with the current Disney regime and business strategy (a shareholder meeting will take place very soon). So Musk is certainly using Carano as somewhat of a proxy here for his own agendas. Having Musk as Carano’s financial backer will make sure this will get decent publicity, and sure enough, the major Hollywood trades like Deadline all have stories about the lawsuit.

So let’s get the popcorn out and see what happens. I still think it will be difficult to prove that Carano was terminated wrongfully or that Lucasfilm defamed her and the best outcome for her probably is to settle out of court for some money (if Disney wants to avoid any further publicity on the matter). Should she actually win it could be a major shake up in Hollywood. Where writers and actors (mostly anonymously) complain about always being in danger of getting blacklisted for what they label “wrongthink”. As in, if you have conservative views these days you’d better keep them to yourself or else they will stop hiring you. Now of course Hollywood has always been like that, unfair, shunning and blacklisting people for all kinds of (silly) reasons, everyone certainly remembers the McCarthy era and how alleged communist supporters were blacklisted and prevented from working in tinsel town. So maybe the label has changed (communist / alt right) but the Hollywood system itself has not changed all that much. Say the wrong thing, even if it is just alleged you say or think the wrong thing… and you are in trouble. And despite reassurances to the contrary Hollywood is of course still sexist and racist, only their targets have maybe changed a bit in the past few years.

An interesting detail is that it was disclosed how much money Carano was paid per Mandalorian episode: $25,000. She eventually negotiated a $5,000 bonus. Still… not very much money.

What do you think? Do you believe Carano even has a chance to win? Will she at least be able to reach a settlement? Or do you think Disney/Lucasfilm will go all the way and not yield at all and try to win this? And remember, keep it polite.

Here you can read Gina Carano’s full tweet on X, it already has more than 20 million views, so this is making big waves:

Today is an important day for me–I am filing a lawsuit against @lucasfilm & @Disney
 
After my 20 years of building a career from scratch, and during the regime of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, Lucasfilm made this statement on Twitter, terminating me from The Mandalorian: “Gina…

— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) February 6, 2024

The Hollywood Reporter has a few more details about Carano’s firing and also has a copy of the lawsuit on their page!

• Review: Skeleton Crew - You Have A Lot To Learn About Pirates (S01E05)
• Weekend Fun: The New Daisy Ridley Movie
• Skeleton Crew Luminate Streaming Charts Week 3
• Review: Skeleton Crew - Can't Say I Remember No At Attin (S01E04)
• Skeleton Crew Streaming Ratings - It Does Not Look Good
• Disclosure Policy