These celebs defied cancel culture in 2022 and are still standing

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Gina Carano responds to cancellation attempt and if she'll fight Rousey

Actress and former MMA fighter Gina Carano explains why she was canceled and how she responded to Disney’s attempted cancellation of her on ‘Unfiltered.’

The year 2022 featured more battles erupt between woke culture and those challenging the silencing of debate. But it also saw more celebrities fighting back, in many different ways. They included the always combative HBO host Bill Maher, musician Winston Marshall (formally of the band Mumford and Sons), "Star Wars" actress Gina Carano, "Monty Python" legend John Cleese and famous comic book movie director/executive James Gunn.

Actor Chris Pratt is a global superstar of franchises such as "Jurassic World" and "Guardians of the Galaxy." But that doesn’t mean he’s immune from attempts to cancel him. 

The actor has talked about faith and has been accused of going to an anti-gay church in California. In April, a user on Twitter called for replacing Pratt in Marvel’s "Guardians" series. The account @themeghanlodon_ tweeted "Marvel. Hear me out. Just… replace him." 

HOW CHRIS PRATT'S FAITH IMPACTS HIS LIFE, CAREER: 'GOD IS REAL, GOD LOVES YOU'

Chris Pratt reached more than 300 lbs. while playing Andy on "Parks and Recreation," but shed the weight to play a superhero. (Jon Kopaloff)

The tweet was liked over 200,000 times. 

But high-profile comic book director James Gunn fought back in defense of his "Guardians" actor. He tweeted, "For what? Because of your made-up, utterly-false beliefs about him? For something that someone else told you about him that’s not true?" 

Offering an all-for-one conclusion, Gunn firmly stated of the Marvel actor and his character: "Chris Pratt would never be replaced as Star-Lord but, if he ever was, we would all be going with him." 

In a follow-up tweet, Gunn called out misinformation, dismissing accusations that Pratt was a member of the Hillsong church in Los Angeles: "He isn’t. I know the church he currently goes to. Do you? The answer is you don’t, but you heard from someone who heard from someone who heard from someone where he goes to church, so decided, ‘Yeah, okay, I’ll believe this terrible thing I heard online about this celebrity!’" 

JOHN CLEESE SAYS WOKENESS HAS A 'DISASTROUS' IMPACT ON COMEDY

Entertainment icon John Cleese speaks at FreedomFest on July 15, 2022. (Fox News Digital)

Comedian, actor and founding member of the Monty Python troupe John Cleese announced in October he was starting a "free speech channel" to focus on "important information that gets censored." Cleese is working on a show for GBNews (Great Britain News). 

Talking to BBC Radio 4's "Today," the actor contrasted his new effort to the BBC and why he could never do a show there: "The BBC have not come to me and said, 'Would you like to have some one-hour shows?' and if they did, I would say, 'Not on your nelly!' I wouldn't get five minutes into the first show before I'd been canceled or censored." 

On October 10, he tweeted about canceling ideas and people: "There's a massive about of important information that gets censored, both in TV and in the press In my new show, I'll be talking about a lot of it. You should be prepared to be shocked."

Bill Maher has been railing against cancel culture for years. In 2022, he slammed fellow liberals who want to censor debate and cancel those who talk about Islamic extremism. Talking to scientist Richard Dawkins for the December 12 "Club Random" podcast, Maher raged, "We've come to this place where you can't even go near a topic, certain topics, without the mob coming after you." 

Regarding the left’s demand to censor speech around the issue of Islamic fundamentalism, the host continued, "It’s so insane how backward their thinking is." On the issue of oppressing women, Maher asked his fellow liberals: "If it was just a society that decided tomorrow to throw a f---ing burlap bag over every woman, like head to toe, like a tarp on a motorboat and the liberals - what would you say about that, liberals? If it was the news in the paper tomorrow?" 

In February of 2022, "View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg was suspended for controversial comments about the Holocaust. She falsely insisted that the Holocaust "wasn’t about race." On his February 4 "Real Time" show, Maher called those comments "crazy," but defended, "[She] should not be canceled or put off her show, as much as I totally disagree with her crazy statement -- free speech! She should be there [on the show]! She shouldn't get a timeout!"

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"Real Time" host Bill Maher  on the set of his HBO show. (HBO)

"Star Wars" actress Gina Carano rebounded in 2022 after being canceled the previous year. The former MMA fighter and actress was fired from the Disney+ show "The Mandalorian" in early 2021 after a social media post that compared the political climate in the United States to that of Nazi Germany. But in 2022, the actress returned to acting, appearing in a western for the Daily Wire. 

Talking to Fox News in June, she described the experience of being canceled by Disney and a social media mob: "When I was canceled, I felt like everything was turned against me. Everything that I loved was just against me. I was fighting for my name." 

She added, "I feel like cancel culture is extremely dangerous. I think it starts putting us on the line of kind of like a social credit score." 

Carano described what should happen instead of trying to cancel someone: "If somebody does make a mistake or something, there should be some amount of forgiveness if it was not on purpose. There should be more conversation of, ‘Let me explain to you what I mean there,’ or, ‘Let's talk about this,’ so that it teaches the children and everybody else how to talk about things, and they don't bully each other."

Carano’s career has recovered as she has now starred in the western, "Terror on the Prairie," and also appears in the Hunter Biden film, "My Son Hunter." 

Gina Carano said she's ready to move on in her career. (Austin Lord for The Daily Wire)

Musician Winston Marshall may have been canceled in 2021, but he feels "liberated" in 2022. Last year, the former Mumfod and Sons lead guitarist fell victim to cancel culture for simply supporting a book by a conservative author about the rise of Antifa. Marshall called the book by Andy Ngo "important" and that was enough. Under pressure, he ultimately left his band. 

But in 2022, he’s performing again and has a podcast on controversial topics called "Marshall Matters." In an interview with Fox News Digital, he described it as "basically exploring all the taboo topics of the age." Marshall now speaks freely, saying that some progressives simply choose "to not accept people with diverse opinions." He added, "We've forgotten the core Christian value that we are all fallen, and we are all fallible." 

MIDDLESBROUGH, ENGLAND - MAY 25: Winston Marshall of Mumford & Sons performs at the Radio 1 Big Weekend at Stewart Park on May 25, 2019 in Middlesbrough, England. (Photo by Jo Hale/Redferns)

Christian Toto runs the popular entertainment site HollywoodinToto.com and writes about the intersection of pop culture and politics. When it comes to 2023 and what the future holds, he told Fox News Digital: "The new year could find more artists balling up their courage and speaking out, either in self-defense or righteous fury." 

He added that "the woke forces are nothing if not progressive, and that means more extreme examples of speech control may be seen in the new year." 

Toto concluded that when it comes to celebs, "the more voices speak up, the more it sends the message that it's okay to do so without consequences. So we might see a snowball effect happening in 2023." 

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