The “Star Wars” universe has its share of actresses who have engaged in questionable or controversial behavior. Heavy has previously reported that “The Rise of Skywalker” star Daisy Ridley once famously lied to her classmates about appearing in the “Harry Potter” film series, and Heavy also covered when Carrie Fisher admitted to having an affair with a married man while filming “Star Wars”. Now there’s the case of actress Gina Carano, who was fired from “The Mandalorian” due to her social media posts.
Carano, who played fan-favorite character Carasynthia “Cara” Dune, was fired from “The Mandalorian” in February of 2021, according to Variety. The outlet also notes that Carano was dropped by UTA, her representation in Hollywood. Entertainment Weekly reports that the Instagram post that ultimately lead to Carano’s firing concerned a comparison between “hating someone for their political beliefs” and the mass genocide of people of Jewish faith in Nazi Germany. Salon reports that Carano deleted the posts, prior to her firing.
What has the actress been up to since her life took this turn? Does she have any new projects on the horizon? And will she ever return to “The Mandalorian” in particular, or the “Star Wars” universe in general? Here’s what you need to know.
Gina Carano Is Unlikely to Return to ‘The Mandalorian’, According to LucasFilm
*sensitive content* pic.twitter.com/XsVr1mHjpM
— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) April 5, 2021
Variety reported that LucasFilm made a statement about Carano’s current and future role within the “Star Wars” universe. “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” a Lucasfilm spokesperson said in a statement to Variety in February 2021. “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Carano’s firing was considered controversial by both fans and industry insiders. A Change.org petition to have Disney re-hire Carano had over 80,000 likes at the time of publication. In an analysis of the firing for Forbes, writer Gene Del Vecchio argued that Disney’s firing of Carano was “confusing”:
“We can disagree as to whether Disney was justified or not in firing Gina, but one thing is clear; Disney’s management of its social responsibility persona is woefully flawed,” Del Vecchio wrote. “To begin, the company’s approach is confusing. Many assert that Pedro Pascal, star of The Mandalorian, offered similar analogies that Carano did, though with a liberal bent, when he shared a now deleted Instagram post comparing Donald Trump voters to Nazis. Pascal kept his job. Carano did not.”
“The company needs a universally consistent approach for its universal values,” he concluded. Del Vecchio’s profile on Forbes notes that Del Vecchio is a “longtime entertainment consultant and adjunct professor at the USC Marshall School of Business” as well as the author of “Creating Blockbusters”.
Gina Carano Said She Was ‘Bullied’ After Being Fired Off ‘The Mandalorian’
While Carano’s IMDB page does not list any projects in production after her stint on “The Mandalorian”, Carano has made statements to the press since her firing, and appears to have at least one new project in the works. CNET, reporting on Carano’s appearance on “The Ben Shapiro Show“, reports that Carano felt she was “bullied” by Disney. Two days after her firing, The Daily Wire announced they would be partnering with Carano, who is set to star in and produce a feature film that will be distributed exclusively to members of the Daily Wire. To date, very few specific details about the film, such as its plot or other attached stars, have been released to the general public.
Several days after the Daily Wire made their announcement, the actress was also featured in a February 19th posting on the Daily Wire site, where she gave an interview about her experience of being fired by Disney.
“I’ve been through so much, and I’ve seen so much now, clearly, of the bullying that’s been taking place, and I saw it before,” Carano stated during her “Ben Shapiro Show” appearance, in reference to the firing. “I’m not the only one that’s ever been bullied by this company, and I know that so deeply.”
According to Newsweek, the actress gained many social media followers in the wake of her firing. Carano has remained active on social media, making headlines again at Newsweek after the actress was called out during an episode of “Real Time With Bill Maher”. During a March 19 appearance on the program, guest and former U.S. Senator from North Dakota Heidi Heitkamp spoke up about Carano’s firing. Newsweek quoted Heikamp on the program as speculating that Carano was fired because she was a Nazi. “She does hang with white supremacists,” the former senator added, prompting Carano to clap back on Twitter with the response below:
Here we have more of the dehumanizing phase of cancel culture.
-Repeat lies over and over until the population takes them as “truth”.
False, disturbing & disgusting language coming from a former US Senator. @HeidiHeitkamp
You knew as soon as you said it you were liable. https://t.co/O4AiHVMYFH
— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) March 29, 2021
Carano was also expected to appear on an upcoming episode of “Running Wild With Bear Grylls”. The actress shared a photo with her and the reality survival series star on Twitter in January 2021, and more recently shared a shot of the two rappelling down the side of a mountain in Italy on her Instagram. According to We Got This Covered, Carano’s episode was not listed among upcoming episodes of the series, which airs on the Discovery Channel. We Got This Covered observed in their report that the Discovery Channel is owned by Disney.
Carano’s Firing Came After Months of Controversial Social Media Posts
The Independent has constructed a timeline of Gina Carano’s controversial social media posts, dating back to August of 2020, when the actress declined to publically support the Black Lives Matter movement on her social accounts. In the fall of 2020, the Independent notes that the controversies continued to pile up, with Carano making comments that some fans found transphobic. Later that same year, Carano publically supported then-President Trump’s re-election campaign, and also shared anti-mask memes.
“They have been looking for a reason to fire her for two months, and today was the final straw,” an unnamed source familiar with LucasFilm told the Hollywood Reporter on the day of Carano’s firing in February 2021.
Prior to her firing, Carano was expected to be a continued presence in the “Star Wars” universe”. CNN reports that Carano had been expected to join the cast of the upcoming “Star Wars” streaming series “The Rangers of the New Republic” on Disney+. Carano’s departure from “The Mandalorian” appears to have impacted not just the “Star Wars” TV universe, but also the real world as well. According to the Deseret News, a planned line of Cara Dune collectibles were “cut from production” after Carano’s forced exit from “The Mandalorian”.
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