Disney Fails to Halt Discovery Process in Gina Carano Lawsuit
Gina Carano is still taking the fight to Disney, and the judicial system is letting her. Carano, who played mercenary and newly-minted marshal Cara Dune on the Disney+ Star Wars series The Mandalorian, was fired for sharing an Instagram post – although she alleges it was really because of her political beliefs and refusal to put pronouns in her then-Twitter bio. This happened just as another Star Wars series, Rangers of the New Republic, was being developed with Carano’s Cara Dune as the main character. With the help of now-X owner Elon Musk, Carano filed a lawsuit against Disney and Lucasfilm for wrongful termination and defamation of character. Over the summer, Disney tried to get the case dismissed, and the judge denied the motion. Now, it appears Disney also attempted to appeal the decision not to dismiss, as well as to stop the discovery process while the appeal was taking place. These requests were just denied as well. Gina Carano posted about the decision, including a copy of the last page of the document:
UPDATE:
After the Judge DENIED Disneys request to DISMISS my case, Disney requested permission to immediately appeal that decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and delay all discovery while that appeal takes place.
Yesterday, October 16th, 2024 we learned that the… https://t.co/zEcR4pZcFw pic.twitter.com/v7xHVTCw8l
— Gina Carano (@ginacarano) October 17, 2024
A couple of things are interesting about this (to me, a layperson who is not a lawyer but has seen most, if not all, John Grisham movie adaptations). First is that this request was sent to the Ninth Circuit Court, which covers California (and several other states) and is notoriously left-leaning. That shouldn’t matter in a court case, but broccoli should taste like chocolate chip cookies, and we all know it doesn’t. When this lawsuit was first filed, my worry was that it was happening in California, so the courts would potentially be inclined to rule in Disney’s favor and send Gina Carano home with a flick of their wrist. But that’s not happening; they’ve consistently ruled in Carano’s favor. Sure, this is only the preliminary stuff, deciding whether or not the case can be heard, but it’s still a big deal because it’s obvious Disney would really like this to go away. Not only will the trial be expensive, but there could be some embarrassing revelations, and that’s added to the bad look they have being sued for firing someone over her political beliefs at a time when they’re losing money over the infusion of identity politics into their entertainment and are desperately trying to counter that narrative.
That leads me to the next part of this motion that piques my interest. Gina Carano says in her post that asking for discovery to be halted is an “unusual request,” and I’m sure it is. That logically makes one ask why Disney would want this, and the answer seems obvious: they really don’t want anyone digging through their business, to the extent that they’re trying to halt the discovery process. I doubt the court’s decision to deny the appeal will be overturned, which means discovery will happen eventually. My guess is that they’re trying to stall so they have enough time to hide some dirty little secrets without anyone from Carano’s legal team noticing. People have been speculating since this lawsuit began that some damaging information about Disney could get out as a result. Their efforts to stymie the discovery process lend credence to this theory. What is it that Disney doesn’t want exposed? I don’t know, but based on the way the company has behaved over the last several years, it could be a lot of things. Remember when America First Legal sent Disney a letter saying they were going to look into their illegal DEI hiring practices and the sexualized content they market to children (which they do all they can to hide from parents)? I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s part of it. There could also be instances similar to what happened to Gina Carano, discriminating against employees for their political opinions. I guess we’ll find out sooner or later.
Let us know what you think of the latest Gina Carano legal win in the comments!
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