Disney has suffered a fresh legal blow in Gina Carano's lawsuit over her firing from The Mandalorian. Gina Carano's character, Cara Dune, was set up to play an important role in The Mandalorian era - even starring in a Carano has now filed a lawsuit against Disney, backed by Elon Musk.
Per Deadline, U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett has now rejected Disney's push for a stay in the proceedings, meaning this is headed for trial - with proceedings due to begin on September 29, 2025. Garnett's decision means the case now moves to what is known as the "discovery" phase, with Carano and her lawyers able to obtain records from Disney pertaining to her firing. "I am obviously very pleased with the opportunity to keep moving forward with the judicial process and into discovery," Carano wrote in a post on Twitter.
What The Carano Lawsuit Means For Star Wars
Carano is seeking punitive damages of $75,000, and a court order that would require her to be rehired by Disney. It's unclear how the latter would work out in principle; as noted by Forbes, this particular aspect is very unusual.
What are the rules for something like that? Could they hire her back and have her fall into a Sarlaac pit in the first few minutes of her appearance? Would she mandate her amount of screentime via the injunction? That seems almost impossible to consider. And it’s not even clear that The Mandalorian is coming back for another season after the Mandalorian and Grogu theatrical movie. Could she force them to put her in that? This part of this whole thing still seems like the biggest reach. Damages would seem more likely, if she did win.
It's worth noting that production on The Mandalorian & Grogu will have wrapped up well before the trial date of September 25, 2029. Should Carano's case be successful, it really does seem unlikely Cara Dune will be rewritten into Star Wars. Still, this will prove an interesting case in point.
Our View On The Carano Case
Gina Carano was fired after comments on social media, and her case has become particularly interesting because it is funded by Elon Musk. Now owner of Twitter, Musk has long promised he would act as the financial backer for anyone who felt they'd been unreasonably treated by employers for exercising free speech rights. This feels very much like something of a test-case, and it will be fascinating to see how it plays out in court.
Oddly enough, the trial may also afford a unique glimpse into the inner workings of Disney and Lucasfilm. That's assuming, of course, that Disney and Carano do not settle outside of court; that still can't be ruled out. Either way, this surely isn't The Mandalorian story Disney hoped to be hitting headlines today.
