In light of the firing of Gina Carano from Disney, #CancelDisneyPlus started trending. Because I was subscribed to Disney Plus, this gave me reason to consider cancelling my subscription to the streaming platform. I thought about it, and went ahead and cancelled.

It wasn’t a difficult choice, though there’s more to the reason than is immediately apparent.

Gina played the role of a major character in The Mandalorian, named Cara Dune. She was a rebel turned New Republic officer, and was notable in that she was able to manhandle the titular Mandalorian, himself. Which is no mean feat, because in Star Wars lore, Mandalorians can give even Jedi a run for their money.

You’re still staring at the butt-whoopin’, aren’t you? That’s okay, take your time.

The Mandalorian is an important show to Disney Plus, as it played a significant role in the early adoption of the platform. If it weren’t for some new programming, the main reason to subscribe to Disney Plus would be to watch a bunch of things you already have. In the platform’s infancy, new content really mattered.

Now, Disney has let major talent in one of their most important shows go, and they’ve done this over her politics on Twitter. This is significant, not just to The Mandalorian, but for every other program in which Gina’s character is significant. Presumably, Gina’s character would have returned for a third season of The Mandalorian, and would also have been a central character to a new spin-off series, Rangers of the New Republic.

For Disney to drop an actor for a character for whom they had some ambitious plans, either out of politics or spite, goes to show that, in the sight of Disney, the politics matter more than the product that they’re producing. This indicates some dreadfully misplaced priorities in their corporate philosophy.

For a creative company to elevate politics above their creative works puts companies like Disney in a negative light. But what’s worse is the sheer lack of focus in their creative endeavors. Now that Disney has Lucasfilm, they seem intent on saturating the market with Star Wars products.

Among the avalanche of content so far includes television series like Rebels, Resistance, and The Mandalorian, as well as an entire trilogy of films. They need to focus on making fewer, better products, but it seems like they’re doing just the opposite. It’s easier to include the following photo packed with logos, rather than list them all:

My response to this is slow down! If they can make all of those programs great, that’s excellent on Disney’s part. But considering how poorly High Republic is doing, I have my doubts. It’s better to produce one great series than to dogpile the market with big mounds of rubbish. One who chases two chickens, catches neither.

Also, why does Obi-Wan need his own series? He was a major character in six Star Wars films, in four of which, he was a main character. He was also a central character in two different Clone Wars TV series, one running for three seasons, the other for seven. What about him could we have missed?

From what I’ve seen, the people who are currently managing Star Wars don’t seem to know what they’re doing, and Dave Filoni seems like the finest chance the IP has to see some quality future content. For me, that’s really sad, because my dad introduced me to Star Wars when I was a kid, and I’ve met people who also had an interest in the series. Yet, it really seems like Star Wars’ finest moments are behind it.

Having said that, I might return to Disney Plus at a future point. There is a possibility that Disney may get it together and realize what should be truly important to them as a creative company, though I’m not counting on it.

My approach with them might just be “stream service skipping”, wherein a person remains subscribed for just one month, binge-watches to get the most for their money, then drops the service until something comes up that would justify paying a few dollars for another month of access.

If Disney doesn’t like that, then they’d better learn to like prioritizing their products over their politics.

The baton has been passed to a new generation. Not because the previous generation handed it down, but because they dropped it.