This Is the Way: Gina Carano Slaps Disney-Lucasfilm with Long-Anticipated Lawsuit - All You Need to Know
Amid the totalitarian madness of 2020-21, the woke empire used the dark side of the Force to rule the galaxy. Meanwhile, mobs of online stormtroopers targeted anyone who dissented from approved narratives.
Actress Gina Carano, who starred as rebel ranger Cara Dune in the first two seasons of Disney’s “Star Wars” spinoff series “The Mandalorian,” experienced the wrath of the empire firsthand when she made a string of comments on Twitter that failed to conform to the woke narratives, after which she endured harassment from the woke mob and lost her job.
Two years after Carano’s 2021 firing, Elon Musk purchased Twitter, since renamed “X.” Musk’s commitment to free speech has made X an online version of Yavin 4, the hidden base where original “Star Wars” rebels like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia found refuge from relentless imperial pursuit.
In August, Musk announced that he would cover legal bills for any employee mistreated by an employer due to that employee’s activity on X.
With this in mind, and with the backing of attorneys hired by X, Carano has now filed a major lawsuit.
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude & thank you to [Elon Musk] & [X] for giving me an opportunity to bring my case to light,” Carano wrote as part of a lengthy X post on Feb. 6
In Disney’s “Star Wars” universe, Mandalorians affirm their creed with a simple declaration: “This is the way.” Now, Carano and others might have found the way to destroy the woke empire.
Announcing the Lawsuit
In her post announcing the lawsuit, Carano wrote that online bullies targeted her for harassment “because I was not in line with the acceptable narrative of the time.”
That “acceptable narrative” included, for instance, declared support for Black Lives Matter and transgender ideology. Carano gave the mob neither, and the mob hounded her for it.
Furthermore, in one of this spectacle’s great ironies, Carano contended that woke Disney discriminated against her on account of her sex.
“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?” Carano wrote.
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
These major issues — deviation from the woke narrative, sex discrimination and free speech — lie at the core of Carano’s allegations against Disney and its subsidiary Lucasfilm.
The Court Filing
Carano’s attorneys filed a cleverly worded, 59-page complaint seeking a jury trial and damages.
“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,” the complaint began.
According to the filing, the defendants at Disney and Lucasfilm also treated Carano differently than their male employees.
“Even though ‘the Force is female,’ Defendants chose to target a woman while looking the other way when it came to men,” Carano’s attorneys wrote in obvious mockery of a silly “girl power” advertising campaign orchestrated by Nike and endorsed by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.
“But the rule of law still reigns over the Defendants’ empire,” the lawsuit added.
Thus, the complaint laid out the same claims Carano highlighted in her post: She ran afoul of the approved woke narrative, suffered discriminatory treatment on account of her sex and lost her job because she exercised her right to free speech — the last a clear violation of California labor law.
The complaint then described Carano’s career arc, including her success on “The Mandalorian.” For instance, by late 2020 Carano’s character had become so popular that Lucasfilm had planned another spinoff series featuring Carano.
Clearly, Carano’s employers did not dismiss her due to poor job performance.
In fact, former Disney CEO Bob Chapek confirmed as much, explaining that Carano was fired “because she didn’t align with Company values.” The woke CEO identified those values as “respect, decency, integrity and inclusion.”
Thus, Carano lost her job for committing sacrilege against one-third of the woke trinity: diversity, equity and inclusion.
Carano’s attorneys then devoted more than 25 pages to reviewing her social media activity. They provided numerous examples of her dissent from the woke narrative and the online harassment she suffered because of it.
Most damning of all, they claimed her employers endorsed — and participated in — that harassment.
For instance, online social justice trolls attacked Carano for not supporting Black Lives Matter. Then, when Carano questioned why COVID lockdowns applied to churches but not BLM protests, she faced even more threatening criticism.
“Defendants made it known they did not agree with or approve of Carano’s political views on the Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates,” the complaint read.
Next, Carano triggered the transgender mob when she declined to add pronouns to her Twitter profile. After substantial harassment, she added the words “boop/bop/beep” to her bio section — a lighthearted reference to the signature noises made by “Star Wars” robots and also, she thought, “a playful way to defuse all the harassment.”
Ominously, Disney then subjected Carano to what her attorneys called a “‘re-education’ program.” The actress agreed to some of her woke overlords’ demands but resisted others.
“The purpose was clear, Carano had to ‘grow’ and ‘learn,’ and Defendants wanted to know ‘where her mindset is currently’ with regard to the controversy over pronouns. Until then, they were not going to allow her to speak to the media or include her in any promotions,” the complaint read.
Meanwhile, the social media controversies multiplied.
Carano endured more harassment from both strangers and her employer, the lawsuit alleged, following the 2020 presidential election. Her concerns about election fraud, expressed in a rather tame post on Nov. 5, 2020, incurred the usual wrath.
“At no point did Defendants defend Carano, but rather they continued to express dismay that Carano’s political views did not match what they expected from their stars,” the complaint said.
Finally, after months of backlash, Carano made an oblique yet commonplace historical reference.
“Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?” the actress wrote.
The day that comment was posted to Instagram — Feb. 10, 2021 — Lucasfilm issued the following statement: “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Significantly, the complaint noted that the late actor Carl Weathers, who also appeared in “The Mandalorian,” posted a similar message on social media but suffered no consequences.
Here the first two elements of Carano’s complaint — ideological punishment and sex discrimination — came together.
“Defendants’ disparate treatment of Weathers further demonstrates their discrimination against Carano on the basis of her sex and/or political beliefs. Indeed, when he made the same generic statement, Weathers’ comments were interpreted to attack Republicans, so he was given a pass by Defendants,” the complaint read.
The complaint cited other political posts from Carano’s male co-stars, none of whom suffered persecution.
For instance, Pedro Pascal, who played the title character in “The Mandalorian,” regularly denigrated former President Donald Trump and his supporters, likening them to Nazis. Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the original “Star Wars” and briefly reprised that role in “The Mandalorian,” did the same.
Like Weathers, neither Pascal nor Hamill endured chastisement or termination.
Finally, the complaint made three claims for relief: “wrongful discharge,” “wrongful discharge and refusal to hire,” and “sex discrimination.”
Strictly speaking, Carano’s lawsuit does not directly charge First Amendment violations. Most readers undoubtedly know that the First Amendment prohibits government regulation of speech; it does not mean that individuals in all cases may say whatever they please without consequences. Employers, for instance, may dismiss employees for many types of disrespectful or abusive speech.
On the other hand, to say that Carano’s case does not charge First Amendment violations amounts to a distinction without a difference. After all, Americans have enshrined First Amendment freedoms into many of their labor laws.
With this in mind, the complaint cited multiple sections of the California labor code.
For instance, Section 1101 reads as follows: “No employer shall make, adopt, or enforce any rule, regulation, or policy: (a) Forbidding or preventing employees from engaging or participating in politics or from becoming candidates for public office. (b) Controlling or directing, or tending to control or direct the political activities or affiliations of employees.”
Section 1102 adds further restrictions on employer behavior: “No employer shall coerce or influence or attempt to coerce or influence his employees through or by means of threat of discharge or loss of employment to adopt or follow or refrain from adopting or following any particular course or line of political action or political activity.”
Finally — and deliciously — Carano’s woke former employers might have violated Section 12940 of the California government code, which prohibits, among other things, discrimination on the basis of sex.
As for relief, Carano will seek a jury trial and more than $75,000 in compensatory damages.
All told, it is a formidable and welcome filing. One hopes that Musk will be able to help not only Carano but all who have been tyrannized by the woke empire.
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