Battle for Free Speech: Elon Musk and Gina Carano take on Disney 

Elon Musk has made good on his offer and has hired lawyers to team up with Gina Carano to take on Disney for her termination and what she alleges (and we all saw with our own eyes) was subsequent  harassment and defamation by their executives at the highest level.

Back in 2021, Carano was very publicly fired from the popular Disney and Lucasfilms show, The Mandalorian, where she played the character Cara Dune and was set to lead a spin-off series featuring that character. The cause of her termination was made public by Disney and said to be because of an image she shared which they claimed was “denigrating” to the jewish people. The image (below) actually compares just points out that German citizens were often complicit in the abuses jewish people experienced during the Nazi reign and the holocaust which is an undeniable historical fact and difficult truth. The image, which was not even created by Carano, reminds us that turning on our neighbors in favor of tyrannical governments is a mistake. Does that seem inherently antisemitic? Decide for yourself below:

Disney and Lucasfilm’s statement regarding Carano sharing this image was: “her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

If Disney and Lucasfilm’s felt like any reference to Nazis or the holocaust is inherently “denigrating” to people then it seems odd that there was no penalty for Carano’s Mandolorian co-star, Pedro Pascal, was never penalized in any way for comparing President Donald Trump (who absolutely did not commit heinous genocide) to Hitler and also compared the U.S./Mexico border to “Nazi Germany” (despite no jewish people being rounded up or killed at the border). These incidents are named in the lawsuit as well as the Nazi related posts by Lucasfilm’s star, Mark Hammil. The lawsuit also details other alleged harassment Carano faced due to expressing or refusing to express certain views which her castmates were not forced to endure despite having their own very public political views. 

Carano lost her representation, her job and a lot of business due to Disney/Lucasfilm’s actions and fictional statements that she is a person who disparages other races, cultures and creeds. Her lawsuit seeks damages for what Disney/Lucasfilms did to her reputation and career and seeks mandatory reinstatement to her role as Cara Dune in The Mandalorian. 

Seeing Elon Musk step up and truly defend free speech, putting his own finances at stake is more than can be said for most claiming they are great speech defenders. It’s very unlike so many ‘influencers’ who claim to be bastions of speech but are willing to sacrifice it the moment a customer asks them to fire someone. It’s very unlike those who only want there to be free speech as long as it is their speech and will bend over backwards to make excuses for themselves and to justify their own hypocrisy.

Whatever happens with Gina Carano’s case, may the force be with them both.