An internal war is currently raging within Lucasfilm, producer of the Star Wars franchise, bought by Disney in 2012. A few days ago I wrote an article describing the ideological struggle that is taking place between two antagonistic camps. Due to the interest the article aroused, today I continue the story with some new developments.
On one side is the faction led by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. (Some Star Wars fans have even defined this side as the, ‘Kathleen Kennedy Klan,’ making a pun with the KKK, owing to what they see as that side’s intolerance.) On the other side are the vast majority of fans of Star Wars, whose leading figures are Favreau and Filoni (producers of the Star Wars series The Mandalorian) but also actors Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Gina Carano (Cara Dune in the aforementioned series).
The first is the pro-green camp, with all the ideological standard-bearers of postmodern-era Disney. The other is the camp of Star Wars fans, old and new, gathered for the love of the franchise, who reject the ideologization of the work.
The Mandalorian has attracted many subscribers to the Disney+ platform as it is a masterpiece uniting old and new fans. This work gave an enormous relevance to its producers, both for the support of the fans and for the economic benefits generated by that series that surpassed Disney’s most optimistic expectations. And the end of the second season of this series exposed the “ideological war” within Lucasfilm.
The reaction from the pro-green camp within Lucasfilm was to be expected after the masterstroke delivered by The Mandalorian’s producers. And this reaction was not long in coming: they have just fired actress Gina Carano, who does not hide her Republican and conservative political sympathies on social media networks. She brought up voter fraud in America on her social media, showing her support for Donald Trump. But what, according to Lucasfilm, justified their decision to fire her, were some tweets that she posted, in which she identified the left as America’s biggest problem. She also compared the way Jews were treated in early Nazi Germany to the way conservatives are treated in America today.
Regardless of the different opinions on the appropriateness or inappropriateness of these comparisons, there is no justification whatsoever for a dismissal based on political opinions. Moreover, many Hollywood directors and actors have spoken out multiple times on political issues and election campaigns. But of course, no one criticizes those who adhere to the liberal establishment.
We didn’t need to wait long for the signs of support for Gina Carano. Ben Shapiro, a conservative journalist of Jewish origin and religion, has just hired her for a future film production.
Carano’s dismissal follows the pattern of the so-called cancel culture, which is a strategy used to silence any popular figure who endorses conservative opinions. This method is an obvious attack on the freedom of speech, which united both liberals and conservatives in defense of this right.
The reactions from fans haven’t been long in coming either: they’re mostly defending Gina Carano, so much so that many are already cancelling their Disney+ subscriptions, prompting others to do the same. Three sources at Lucasfilm confirmed that the order to fire Gina Carano came from Kathleen Kennedy herself. She couldn’t stand having someone expose political ideas contrary to her own and her own progressive view of the Star Wars universe in this way. The progressive narrative that says Star Wars fans are misogynists who don’t like strong women has been completely shattered by the support that Gina Carano, and her character Cara Dune, have received. Kennedy had been rumored to be looking for a pretext to fire Gina Carano for weeks, and she finally found it….
But the story doesn’t end with this dismissal. The character of Cara Dune is one of the most popular in the series. The sales of Cara Dune figurines are very high, and the impact of fans cancelling their subscription has already been felt. According to some sources, all of this will be reported and mentioned at the next Disney shareholder meeting. If this is true, shareholders will have a major decision in their hands about the future of the franchise, and the ability to hold the head of Lucasfilm accountable for the profit shortfalls generated by her ideologically driven decisions. We will see if the majority of investors are willing to sacrifice their profits for the sake of ideological issues. We also know that the pressure from the Hollywood progressives will be as high as it can get.
Through her performance, Gina Carano shows us that a woman can still be feminine and strong, and thus appear in an action series. But for Lucasfilm, a female character must be written exactly like a male character, dress like a male character, have the same goals and weaknesses as a male character, use the same manly language… Gina Carano was the opposite, and therefore, following the line of the cancel culture and the Kennedy’s clan, she had to be dropped out.
They succeeded for the moment, but the war continues, and the fans haven’t said their last word yet…
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