Gina Carano was dropped from Disney+’s The Mandalorian this week, but she’s already lined up another project following her controversial remarks.
Carano has previously posted tweets perceived as transphobic, shared unfounded claims regarding the 2020 election, and has made dodgy comments regarding the Black Lives Matter protests of last summer. The 38-year-old actress, who portrays Cara Dune on the first-ever live-action Star Wars series, was finally let go this past week after she compared the way Republicans are are treated to what Jewish people experienced living in Nazi Germany.
In response to her firing, the former MMA fighter is teaming up with far-right political pundit Ben Shapiro on a film.
Deadline reports that Carano has retaliated against the backlash, and will work on a new movie with Shapiro’s Daily Wire. “The Daily Wire is helping make one of my dreams—to develop and produce my own film—come true. I cried out and my prayer was answered,” Carano said in a statement. “I am sending out a direct message of hope to everyone living in fear of cancellation by the totalitarian mob. I have only just begun using my voice which is now freer than ever before, and I hope it inspires others to do the same. They can’t cancel us if we don’t let them.”
She is set to develop, produce, and star in the film, which does not have a title or release date. “We could not be more excited to be working with Gina Carano, an incredible talent dumped by Disney and Lucasfilm for offending the authoritarian Hollywood Left,” said Shapiro, who once falsely claimed that “800 million Muslims” were radicalized in a highly controversial YouTube video. “This is what Daily Wire exists to do: provide an alternative not just for consumers, but for creators who refuse to bow to the mob.”
The Daily Wire released its first feature-length film last month with the critically panned school shooting movieRun Hide Fight, which stars Thomas Jane.
The statement Disney shared announcing Carano’s firing from the show called her tweets “abhorrent and unacceptable.” At one point it was rumored she would star in a spinoff series on Disney+, but sources have indicated those plans fell through after she began sharing troubling posts in November. “They have been looking for a reason to fire her for two months, and today was the final straw,” one insider told Hollywood Reporter editor Aaron Couch.
After Disney announced Carano will not appear on The Mandalorian anymore, Ted Cruz was among those to voice his frustration.
“Texan Gina Carano broke barriers in the Star Wars universe: not a princess, not a victim, not some emotionally tortured Jedi,” tweeted the Republican. “She played a woman who kicked ass [and] who girls looked up to. She was instrumental in making Star Wars fun again. Of course Disney canceled her.”
