Gina Carano’s Court Case Against Disney, Explained

ESG, Elon Musk, Instagram, Supreme Court precedents … yippee. Because it’s 2024, and we can’t escape politics and arguments over social-media etiquette, the main entrée for gossip is not the product itself but the ancillary controversies. Just when we thought that Gina Carano‘s ongoing beef with Lucasfilm was finally at an end, we learned that the civil case was only heating up. The scary part is that this case could have enormous ramifications for not just these two parties but the entirety of the entertainment industry. With a novel interpretation of the First Amendment at stake, this could be the most legally significant repost in social media history.

As our Anthony Lund wrote back in April, Cara Dune never returned for Season 3 for reasons that have come to overshadow the show itself. Carano, who portrayed the character, was fired from her co-starring role in Disney+’ The Mandalorian in February 2021 for Instagram posts deemed offensive. In February of this year, Carano sued Lucasfilm, a legal dispute that took on much larger proportions in the national zeitgeist.

Should she triumph in a California federal court, Carano requested $75,000 and a return to her role as Dune. That’s the least interesting aspect. Variety also reported that X (Twitter) CEO Elon Musk is bankrolling her attorney’s fees as part of his larger crusade against cancel culture (when the left does it) and all things woke. And if you don’t think that Disney is aware of “consumers’ perceptions” and the financial consequences of those perceptions, you only need to peruse their 2023 SEC filings. Don’t worry; we’ll cover all the plotlines, twists, and players in case you missed last week’s drama.

A Refresher to the Carano-Disney Legal Odyssey

As we’ve covered in the last few years, the Carano fiasco has quietly snowballed in the intervening years. Carano asserts that Lucasfilm (owned by parent company Disney) wrongfully fired her due to her political affiliations. Quickly attacked in the media (defended in other news outlets), her reposts invoked the horrors of the Holocaust, equating her ordeal as a conservative with a person facing persecution under the Nazi regime. Lucasfilm saw little nuance or value in her sentiments that a Republican in the modern political climate faced similar struggles with a Jew in 1940s Germany, stating bluntly:

“Her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

Rather than backpedal, the actress maintained her stance. It cost her the role of space grunt Cara Dune. Her firing led to years of nasty back and forth, resulting in a growing ideological division in the fanbase, each side closing ranks. To her critics, her remarks belittled the victims of the Nazis and were nothing but a cheap, histrionic stunt in extremely poor taste. Defenders were quick to point out that Americans are free to argue and express their opinions and that she did not condone violence nor single out or slander any individual. Her words were spoken on her social media account, not Lucasfilm’s or Disney’s.

As a direct consequence of the post, Carano was simultaneously dumped by her representation, United Talent Agency, at that same time in Winter 2021. All this culminated in the abandonment of The Mandolorian spin-off, Rangers of the New Republic, which was slated to go into production. Though picking up a couple of roles since her contract was nullified, Carano has never reached the same level of notoriety since, relegated to low-budget projects made by right-wing production company The Daily Wire.

Is Disney Painting Itself Into a Corner?

The wrongful termination lawsuit is anything but forgotten. Sherilyn Peace Garnett, the judge hearing the suit, strongly intimated that Disney’s motion to dismiss the case will probably be denied, still unclear that the defendant Disney had established they had no ulterior motives. This doesn’t explicitly mean it will continue, nor that a settlement is impossible, but that further information must be uncovered before the legal process can lurch one step forward. Litigators for Disney allege that Carano’s reposting of an Instagram message harms the Star Wars brand and would directly lead to a downturn in viewership.

We can only guess how Disney’s lawyers expect to prove this in court, as we lack any solid viewing statistics or insight on how they could demonstrate she hurt ratings precisely as interest in the show in Season 3 waned after her departure. Disney, however, possesses some more concrete numbers, which may play a very large factor in this case, either for their benefit or as a detriment.

There’s no definite way to know if this will benefit Disney in the long term. As their new Star Wars streaming project, The Acolyte, attracts all the wrong kinds of press, their defensive strategy is a major gamble. Polarizing many Star Wars viewers, Bob Iger and Co are attempting to wiggle loose from the charges by Carano’s lawyers by defining Lucasfilm and Disney, for all intents and purposes, as a political organization that makes entertainment, not unlike the aforementioned The Daily Wire. It’s a bold play, but likely their only legal recourse to avoid a wrongful termination payout.

Related

Lucasfilm President Speaks to The Acolyte Backlash from Some Star Wars Fans

Kathleen Kennedy and Leslye Headland offer their thoughts on the Star Wars fandom & those lofty expectations for The Acolyte.

There’s another minefield that Disney is potentially walking into. As legal experts quickly point out, Disney is legally obligated to share memos, emails, official paperwork, and other communiqués relating to the Carano case. This is known as the discovery phase, and the US legal code dictates that Disney must make this information available to Carano’s attorneys.

There could be incriminating information within, and even if there is not, there could be a treasure trove of information relating to viewing numbers (streaming services love to hide the actual numbers), internal strife, or embarrassing comments that could paint Disney and/or Lucasfilm in a bad light. Think the Sony Leaks, but with the added fuel of a culture war to amplify the already raging dumpster fire that is Star Wars discourse. Should the Carano case never go one step further than depositions, the humiliation could be payback enough for her defenders.

The Broader, Unintended Ripple Effects of the Case

If Disney wins, companies might rely heavily on morality clauses, which may or may not include endorsing specific candidates and causes. The practice of morality clauses is not uncommon in the entertainment world, first adopted in the Silent Era by Universal Studios in the aftermath of the Fatty Arbuckle murder trial. Yup, Disney claims it has a First Amendment right to discriminate against employees who don’t toe the line. This case references the Boy Scouts of America v. Dale Supreme Court ruling, meaning Disney is essentially using the same defense as an exclusionary group that attempted to expel homosexual employees to now expel a conservative actress. Wrap your mind around that logical pretzel. Legal defenses make for strange bedfellows.

The backlash against her politics predated her words on social media. In 2020, a petition filed by fans of the show (or just people who hate her) asked Lucasfilm to boot her from the cast of The Mandalorian for her anti-mask comments during the COVID outbreak. Whether or not she made further inflammatory statements, it would appear that this type of legal case was inevitable and not just for Carano.

This swings both ways and will also enable right-leaning companies to purge workers who express values incompatible with prescribed corporate doctrine. Suppose this case upholds Disney’s right to fire anyone it deems morally reprehensible or undermining its core principles. In that case, employees will have zero recourse to take action, leading to a further escalation of politicization of culture, every company drawing lines in the sand, every performer forced to either adhere to a purity test or keep their mouth shut and self-censor. Depending on how the Carano v Lucasfilm suit unfolds, actors could be forced to be brand ambassadors first and artists second. The Mandalorian, starring Carano in the first two seasons, is streaming on Disney+.