The legal battle is truly on in Gina Carano’s suit against Disney and Lucasfilm. With the deep pockets of Elon Musk backing her lawyers and the suit’s demand for a jury trial, it is pretty clear that a settlement and fat check to make her go away is not likely to appease her demand for justice, and even if it eventually does, the exposure of the skullduggery engaged in by Disney and their people will be a huge PR black-eye that will add to their loss of status which, as we know, has already dropped them down the list of “admired companies” from what was once the peak not just in entertainment but in the economy at large.
(L-R): Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), Cara Dune (Gina Carano), Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) and Koska Reeves (Mercedes Varnado) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
So what’s a Mouse to do? First, of course, they will do what they always have done (recent examples being in the Reedy Creek mess) and delay, delay, obfuscate, and delay. We can expect that as a matter of habit from the Igerverse…but there is one more thing they have launched that I think we can expect to see flourish and grow in the coming weeks so here’s your heads-up to watch for it, coming soon to a Disney shill and pixieduster near you.
In the past 48 hours or so we’ve seen a few people online and in showbiz come forward to say that hey, they didn’t “Fire” Gina for any nefarious cause, they just didn’t renew her contract so no biggie, there’s no inherent guarantee of renewal of any contract she had with them and big deal, so what, case closed.
(Left to right) Gina Carano is Cara Dune, Pedro Pascal is the Mandalorian and Carl Weathers is Greef Karga in THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+
As reported here on That Park Place by John Trent, the most prominent person to come out with this lame blame game so far is Deadpool co-creator Fabian Nicieza but he’s not alone and is about to inevitably be joined by many, many more reading from the same talking points coming directly from Iger Central, so this is your official B.S. Incoming warning.
Their premise, weak as it is and legally ridiculous, is that somehow ANY company can just not renew contracts at will, there’s no legal standing for complaining, and that Gina’s case is a bunch of sour grapes and resentment, pure and simple.
(L_R): Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) and Cara Dune (Gina Carano) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
Here is why that is nonsense and will not stand up in court—and I’m no lawyer, but having been involved in more than a few contract disputes, grievances, and negotiations in my years in Hollywood –and having consulted so many legal experts in our League of Extraordinary TPP Gentlemen, I can stand on very firm ground to explain this and do.
FIRST, it is California law that NO employer can take negative actions—not just firing or not renewing, but pressuring and attacking and defaming any employee—based on their political opinions and speech and expression. Period. It’s illegal. Do it and you lose.
(L-R): Cara Dune (Gina Carano), The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), Mythrol (Horatio Sanz) and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
But how do we know that’s what Disney did? BECAUSE THEY TOLD US SO!!! If you read their official statement made the day they dropped Gina from not just the Mandarlorian Season 3 but the upcoming spin-off series and films they’d already TOLD her she would be a big part of, the politics are pretty obvious.
The Disney statement said: “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.”
Ooops. And she’s got the receipts regarding offers for future shows/spin-offs/movies and we know THAT because, even before this case proceeds to “discovery” the Musk lawyers wouldn’t have taken it further without a whole treasure trove of evidence in their briefcases, emails, and other things that Gina has alluded to in the past including internal Disney/Lucasfilm messages that were sent to her by mistake.
Gina Carano is Cara Dune and Carl Weathers is Greef Karga in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+. © 2020 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.
SECOND, the fact that her co-stars, prominently the Mandalorian himself Pedro Pascal and the original Star Warrior Mark Hamill, BOTH posted HIGHLY inflammatory stuff on social media that literally called President Trump and anyone who supported him Nazis, had pictures of goose-stepping and saluting Germans from World War II to make their point, and were treated how by Disney for that political “speech” which was MUCH nastier, more direct, and overt than Gina’s? ZERO, NADA, NOTHING said or done by Disney/Lucasfilm—they certainly were not harassed, asked to appear before a “struggle session” of tormentors, and nobody “failed to renew” their deals with the studio—let alone, as it seems happened and as evidence in Discovery may show (and may perhaps already be in hand with Gina’s legal team) pressured their AGENTS to dump her and other potential employers to blacklist them. AND THAT becomes SEXUAL prejudice and bias, folks, yet ANOTHER violation of the law.
Of course, the fact that, as That Park Place has also reported and as Gina’s lawsuit proclaims (thus she’s got proof) it went further than that, with controversial former Harvey Weinstein “fixer” and The Acolyte showrunner at Lucasfilm, who is a Kathleen Kennedy protégé, actually working to FUND a campaign of defamation and harassment against Gina, and doing it, so it seems, on company time and with company emails and resources. Oops.
(L-R): Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae and Director Leslye Headland on the set of Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
BUT MEANWHILE, the clearly party-line excuse that “No biggie, they just didn’t extend or renew her contract. Nothing to see here, as you were” is being rolled out bigtime. Most recently we’re seeing things like this Daily Beast headline: “Disney Has The Right Not To Want To Work With Gina Carano” with the misleading subhead “The corporate behemoth is heavy handed and hypocritical, but the former “Mandalorian” actress doesn’t have a First Amendment right to a private sector job.”
Ah, the Disney folks, as their recent TOTAL defeat in Federal Court of their claims against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis show, just LOVE to pretend their First Amendment free speech rights are involved in something that is utterly NOT about that but about legal vs. illegal activities under established law, don’t they?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) speaks during a convocation at Liberty University’s Vines Center in Lynchburg, Va., on Friday, April 14, 2023. Photo Credit: Tom Williams, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
SO…you can expect to see a LOT more of this as we go forward. Don’t be fooled. Disney’s shills and under-thumb media may be spreading their erroneous pixiedust to try to cloud your vision and excuse their behavior, but thanks to the honest, verified, and dedicated folks here at TPP and our affiliates, you can find the truth and be protected from their “magic” nonsense.
Do not buy the con. The case has VERY strong legal merits, and time will tell as it unfolds that in this, like so many things, Iger’s Kingdom is not so magical after all.
Archive link to that disgusting Daily Beast article(The daily Beast is a communist propaganda outlet). https://archive.ph/aPmGr