Unless there is a shift in the legal Force or a big bucks settlement, the Walt Disney Company and Gina Carano will go head-to-head at trial next year over the former mixed martial artist’s 2021 firing from The Mandalorian.
That trial will start on September 29, 2025, to be specific. After having beaten the Mouse House and its Daniel Petrocelli-led legal team’s move earlier this year to get her Elon Musk-backed sex discrimination and wrongful dismissal suit tossed, Carano this week scored another winner with a federal judge denying Disney’s desire for a stay of proceedings and interlocutory appeal. “Having considered the parties’ submissions, the relevant law, and the record in this case, the Court DENIES the Motion,” US District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett wrote earlier this week.
In refusing to give the green light to Disney’s hopes of taking the matter to another court and overturning her July 24 decision rejecting their motion for dismissal, Judge Garnett has set the clock ticking on the trial.
In fact, with her over previous ruling being challenged by the very nature of Disney’s latest motion and desire for an appeal, Judge Garnett made sure to knock down any notion Disney and its outside counsel may or may not have had of getting the upper hand. “Defendants do not, however, explain how a Ninth Circuit opinion affirming the Court’s Order would alleviate the burden of responding to the discovery Plaintiff has propounded to date, nor is it apparent to the Court how such a decision could provide such relief,” she writes in the 10-page order. “In any event, arguments regarding discovery—which, the Court notes, were not at issue in the Order—do not appear to have any bearing on the termination of the litigation and do not persuade the Court that certification is appropriate here.” A.K.A.: Don’t waste my time, we’re all adults here.