The Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter: February 9, 2024
Farewell to a friend, the likely return of another friend, a questionable lawsuit, and all the rest of the usual nonsense
Hello there
Good morning or afternoon or whenever you get around to reading this. Welcome to this week’s edition of the Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter. It’s going to be a short one this week. Unfortunately there are things going in the real world this week that demand my attention so Death Star HR is going to be a little light. But I promise I’ll make it up to you next week with an extra long newsletter. That might be more a threat than a promise. Anyway, this week we pay respects to Carl Weathers, wonder how exactly Baylan Skoll will return, and see the “triumphant” return of Cara Dune.
As always, if you’re enjoying Death Star HR, please tell a friend. Word of mouth and forwarded emails, is all I have in the way of a marketing budget. Now, let’s get to it.
This Is Where The Fun Begins
It is not my intention to have the section just be where I just post pictures of things people send me. But if I get something in the mail, it would be rude not to post it. This week we have the first Death Star Human Resources Department Newsletter branded merchandise. My birthday was last week. I got a package in the mail from Mom Mothma and Darth Dad and found this:
Yogurt would be proud. Merchandising! Death Star HR the mug! For sale soon. Maybe.
Greef Karga Has Become One With the Force
By now there’s a good chance you’ve seen the news. Last week, on February 1st, Carl Weathers passed away. In the Star Wars galaxy, Weathers played head of the Nevarro Bounty Hunters Guild turned High Magistrate Greef Karga in The Mandalorian. Karga was probably the closest thing to Mando had to a BFF. At least after their initial misunderstanding about turning Grogu over to the Imperials.
In addition to appearing in nine episodes, Weathers also directed two episodes of The Mandalorian. Season 2’s “The Siege”, where Mando and company raid an what they thought was an old Imperial base but discovery there’s still some weird cloning going on; and Season 3’s “The Foundling”, where we get the triumphant return of Ahmed Best1 as Jedi Knight Kelleran Beq.
I know the behind the scenes specials they shoot for all of the Disney+ shows basically function as a commercial for the show, but you can tell when they interview Weathers just how much fun he was having being part of the Star Wars universe and how much his co-stars liked working with him. Unfortunately he never got to achieve his Star Wars dream of directing a Greef Karga spinoff. Hopefully he gets the sendoff he deserves in the upcoming Mando movie.
RIP Carl. Hope you’re heading up the Bounty Hunter’s Guild in the great beyond.
Baylan is (Probably) Back
We can all agree that Baylan Skoll was the best part of Ahsoka, right? Right. From the opening scene when he and Shin Hati punk some New Republic troops to his final shot of standing in front of the stone statues of the Mortis Gods, Baylan dominated every scene he was in. And with the untimely passing of Ray Stevenson, who played Baylan, we don’t know exactly if the character will return for season 2 and if he does, how exactly Disney will pull it off. I laid out what I think are the three options last year.
Last month, the official Ahsoka twitter2 account tweeted this little doodle. CBR wrote a story with the headline:
“Star Wars Subtly Teases Baylan Skoll's Return in Ahsoka Season 2”
When I first saw the tweet, I thought it was implying that Ahoska was going to meet up with Baylan again. They’d probably have a nice chat, discuss their various philosophies on the Jedi, maybe swap a few Anakin Skywalker stories, and then get down to a good, old fashioned lightsaber duel. Looking at again, that’s obviously Ahsoka on the left, but it I’m pretty sure that’s Sabine with her on the right.
So how does the article make the leap from a drawing of Ahsoka and Sabine to that Baylan is back? Well, it’s a little bit of a leap of logic. A little bit of stating the obvious. Baylan found the stone Mortis Gods. It appears Ahsoka and Sabine are going to find the stone Mortis Gods. So obviously that means Baylan is back. I’m not actually here rag on CBR or any of the other Nerd News sites. They’ve got a job to do, and unfortunately that sometimes means there’s a little clickbait involved. That’s just being online in 2024. Did it work with me? Pretty clearly it did. I clicked the link AND wrote about the article AND linked it here. So maybe it’s my fault.
At the risk of once again stating the obvious, Baylan will be back. The only real question is do they recast him (most likely) or fire up supercomputers and try to CGI him for an entire season. You can’t have a cliff hanger like a statue of the Mortis Gods and then not follow up on it.
Talk About a Cursed Sentence
How’s this for a headline? Elon Musk Will Fund Gina Carano's Lawsuit Over Star Wars Firing. It’s one of those times where it’s like Beetlejuice, you say either of those names three times and they appear on the rotting corpse of Twitter3.
I debated whether or not I was going to write something about this. I truly hate that this is even something to write about. As someone who is Extremely Online, I get way too much culture war nonsense during my daily doomscrolling. Reading about my silly movies and TV shows about Space Wizards with laser swords is my escape. On the other hand, Star Wars (the movies/tv shows) are inherently political so maybe there’s just no escape and we have to talk about this.
As quick refresher, Gina Carano played New Republic Marshall Cara Dune in the first two seasons of The Mandalorian but not season 3. Why? From the story linked above:
Carano was fired4 in February 2021 after the actress shared, then deleted, an anti-Semitic story on her Instagram. It was the final straw after months of statements including mocking covid mask mandates, spreading conspiracies about the United States election, liking posts disparaging the Black Lives Matter movement, and deriding pronoun usage. “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” a statement first obtained by io9 said at the time. “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Of course, Carano believes she’s the real victim here.
According to Carano though, while Lucasfilm claims it fired her over those statements, she thinks it was only because she was a woman, and male co-stars made similarly offensive posts that were ignored. “Some of us have been unjustly singled out, harassed, persecuted and had our livelihoods stripped away because we dared to encourage conversation, asked questions, and refused to go along with the mob,” Carano said in a statement.
I have no doubt there are plenty of lawyers who would gladly take Elon’s money and wage a battle over this. Maybe they believe in the cause or maybe they just have law school loans.
But here’s the deal. This isn’t a First Amendment case. As much as Carano tries to will that into existence, at least in the news cycle. I would guess she’s not even going to really argue that in her lawsuit but rather that’s going to be her rallying cry in the media. The US government did not get Carano fired5. She is not in jail for expressing her views. Carano can express whatever views she wants. She is out in the world a free person who has found herself much less marketable and employable than she was three years ago as a consequence of her actions. My guess it is went something like this:
Disney: Please stop tweeting those things. We feel it reflects badly on us.
Carano: OK sure whatevs.
Disney: You’re still tweeting. Knock it off.
Carano: I do what I want!
Disney: LOL ok. Cara Dune is going BRB.
Admittedly, that’s a dramatic reenactment. I’m sure didn’t go down quite like that but the gist is probably pretty close.
How much influence an employer can have over their employee’s life and if the balance of power is too skewed to employers is certain a conversation worth having. But we’re stuck in the reality that we’re in.
Is it a case of wrongful termination and sex discrimination as she claims? I guess that’s for a jury to decide. Although I would assume Disney will give her enough money to go away, admit nothing, and she’ll claim victory. But being a Twitter shiposter is not a protected class under any case law that I’m aware of.
And bringing this back to Star Wars, I liked her character. I was excited for Rangers of the New Republic. There’s really nothing stopping them from doing Rangers with someone new but maybe they feel it’s a cursed franchise now.
As I’ve said before, I remain truly amazed that Carano decided being a shitposter was better than having your own Star Wars series. Talk about a commitment to the bit.
From the Depths of Wookieepedia
Last week I posted about Galactic Empire, the Star Wars metal band that exists in our galaxy. This week, we’ve got a band from the galaxy far, far away. Distraction. Since they’re not in a movie or TV show, we don’t know what they actually sounded like. But there is one clue.
The band performed very slow and depressing music, leading to more than one live suicide during their performances.
Oh, so indie rock exists in the Star Wars universe as well. How about that.
News From the HoloNet
Andor Season 2’s Release Could Be “Half a Year” Away, Stellan Skarsgård Says
Please please please please let it be true.
The Mandalorian movie looks set to start filming sooner than expected
Again, please please please please let it be true.
A sweet Star Wars reunion has fans very emotional: "I love them"
Ewan and Hayden are the bromance this world needs right now.
The Rolling Stones Almost Ruined Star Wars
Guest appearances from Eric Idle and “The Tunisian Death Drink”. The 70’s were a strange time.
That’s it for this week. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe. I’ll catch you next week, and may the Force be with you.
Yes, I know Best was in Jedi Temple Challenge, but I’m pretty sure that’s not canon.
I’m not calling it X.
Still not calling it X.
I’m not sure if she was fired, or just said we’re not renewing your contract or something along those lines. Words matter.
Or did they? I just started a new conspiracy theory.