Gina Carano's 'The Mandalorian' Firing, Explained

Gina Carano, also known as Cara Dune in the 'Star Wars' series, was fired from 'The Mandalorian' following a series of controversial tweets. Here's what to know

Gina Carano as Cara Dune in 'The Mandalorian'
Disney

Image via Disney+

Gina Carano as Cara Dune in 'The Mandalorian'

Gina Carano’s time as part of the Disney family has come to an end. Things seemed to be going well for her until her political opinions overshadowed what she was accomplishing professionally. Her controversial posts have previously gotten negative attention, but she faced even more backlash on social media last week after sharing several conservative posts on her Instagram Story. In defense of her views, the actress shared a photo that compared being a conservative in the United States to being Jewish during the Holocaust. 

The actress starred in the Disney+ hit series The Mandalorian for two seasons, and Star Wars fans seemed to love her character. Carano, a former MMA fighter, was cast as the bounty hunter Cara Dune in the Star Wars series, and there were rumors of a plan for her to star in a spinoff. Following the controversy, Lucasfilm fired her from the show and her agency, UTA, dropped her shortly after. While many fans called for her to be reprimanded for her online posts, others condemned Disney for firing her and blamed the reaction on “cancel culture.” Some fans even said they would cancel their subscription to the streaming service.   

The concept of “canceling” celebrities for their controversial thoughts, views or actions, is not new. It has been used a lot more lately due to the country’s political divide and with celebrities being exposed for their racist, sexist, or homophobic beliefs. Blacklisting has been a part of Hollywood since its inception, but Carano is fighting back this time. The actress reacted to the backlash and told her fans on Instagram that she can’t be canceled, writing: “They can’t cancel us if we don’t let them.” 

Check out everything that has happened since the actress shared the now-infamous post.

Carano is no stranger to controversy on social media

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The recent tweets and Instagram posts are not the first time her views have gotten her in trouble. She was previously criticized for sharing misinformation about mask-wearing during the coronavirus pandemic and posts that claimed there was voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. In November, she was criticized for mocking people who specify their pronouns on social media, as “she/her,” “he/him,” “they/them,” etc. She mocked it by updating her own Twitter bio with “beep/bop/boop,” which she later deleted. She addressed the pronoun controversy in a recent interview with journalist Bari Weiss, and Carano said Lucasfilm decided to exclude her from all press and promotion for The Mandalorian because she refused to apologize the way they wanted her to. 


“Earlier on last year before The Mandalorian came out, they wanted me to use their exact wording for an apology over pronoun usage. I declined and offered a statement in my own words. I made clear I wanted nothing to do with mocking the transgender community and was just drawing attention to the abuse of the mob in forcing people to put pronouns in their bio,” she said. “That was heartbreaking, but I didn’t want to take away from the hard work of everyone who worked on the project, so I said OK. That was the last time I was contacted about any type of public statement or apology from Lucasfilm.”

She shared several posts that people didn’t appreciate

gina carano instagram

The actress has had a history of sharing her thoughts and speaking out on social media. The same day she shared the post that led to her firing, she shared several posts to her Instagram Story and on Twitter that raised some eyebrows. She expressed her views on Jeffrey Epstein’s death and shared a joke about people wearing masks. On Feb. 10, she shared an image of a word-search puzzle that spelled out the words “Jeff Epstein didn’t kill himself.” 

On Instagram, she seemed to be poking fun at people in California who are continuing to wear masks amid a global pandemic. She shared an image to her story of a person wearing several masks covering their entire face and head and captioned it: “Meanwhile in California.”

 

The controversial Instagram post about Nazi Germany was the final straw

gina carano instagram

She reposted a now-deleted TikTok that showed an image of Nazi Germany, comparing it to today’s political climate. The post attempted to equate being conservative in America to being Jewish during the Holocaust. “Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…. even by children,” the Feb. 9 post stated. “Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thoughts of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”

 

Fans demanded that she get fired

gina carano fans

Lucasfilm confirmed she no longer worked for the company

gina carano

Following the Instagram post controversy, Lucasfilm—a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios and the production company behind The Mandalorian—released a statement announcing that she is “not currently employed” by them. “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm, and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” a spokesperson said in a statement on Feb. 10. “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”


A source told The Hollywood Reporter that the company had been on the brink of terminating their relationship with the actress for months following her earlier tweets regarding face masks and voter fraud. “They have been looking for a reason to fire her for two months, and today was the final straw,” the insider said. Prior to the scandal, Deadline reported that Carano wasn’t set to continue with Season 3 of The Mandalorian, but fans assumed she would be reprising her role. Others believed that she would star in the upcoming spinoff series, Star Wars: Rangers of the New Republic. Sources told THR’s Aaron Couch that the production company intended to announce Carano as the star of her own series during last year’s Disney Investor Day, but those plans were pushed aside due to her controversial social media activity.  According to THR, Lucasfilm has no plans to recast the role.

The consequences didn’t stop there. The United Talent Agency took action and distanced itself from the star right away. A UTA spokesperson confirmed to Deadline the same day that they had parted ways with the former MMA fighter and that she was no longer with the agency. The Daily Beast was first to report that Carano was dropped by her publicists at ID last fall due to her social media activity.

She is teaming up with Ben Shapiro’s ‘The Daily Wire’ for a movie

ben shapiro

Controversial remarks aside, Carano had another project in the works just days after she was dropped from the Disney+ series. Less than 48 hours after her firing, The Daily Wire, which far-right political pundit Ben Shapiro runs, announced that it was hiring Carano to produce and star in an upcoming, untitled film. “I’d like to thank you all from the deepest part of my heart for the love I’ve received over the past 24 hours. I would not be here without your support. Thank you to @realdailywire @officialbenshapiro for helping make one of my dreams—to develop and produce my own film—come true,” she captioned the announcement on Instagram on Feb. 12. “I cried out, and my prayer was answered. 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. Stick together. I stand with you.” 

“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,” Shapiro said. “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.”

 

 

Another controversial tweet surfaced

gina carano fired

Following the controversy, Twitter users began to recirculate a tweet from December in which she shared an image of a painting that resembled a mural in East London called “Freedom for Humanity.” The actress was scrutinized for sharing the photo since the original mural was heavily criticized for its anti-Semitic ideas and imagery. Some people believed at the time that the mural featured stereotypical depictions of Jewish people. The painting showed men in suits playing a board game similar to Monopoly, as naked bodies were used as props to hold up their table for them to play. The image she shared was slightly different, and the caption read: “All we have to do is stand up and their little game is over.” She clarified that she had no intention of it targeting any group of people. “I was in utter shock and confusion when certain people said it was anti-Semitic,” Carano said. “Then, as I went to take it down, I noticed that the image was not the same as the one people were referencing. I was honestly confused: Should I take it down, or leave it up? I still don’t know the answer to that question, because taking it down only makes the mob attack you more.”

“The image for me was a statement that people need to stand together and rise up, stop being so manipulated by the powers that believe they know what’s best for you and play games with our lives,” she continued. “My heart has only ever had ultimate respect and love for the Jewish community.” 

Shapiro also came to her defense. “I know what anti-Semitism looks like, being one of the more prominent kippah-wearing people out there,” he said. “This doesn’t chart. I don’t like the meme, especially given its origins. But anti-Semitism, like racism—and contrary to the NYT’s executive editor’s dictum—requires intent. Gina obviously didn’t have any such intent.”

“Gina isn’t anti-Semitic. Period. This meme is being ‘resurfaced’ as a post-facto justification for an unjustifiable cancellation,” he added. “Gina wasn’t aware of the origins of the original picture and was devastated to hear about it, just as she has been devastated by the absurd and bad faith contention that she is anti-Semitic in any way.”

Hasbro won’t create anymore of Carano’s ‘Mandalorian’ action figures

cara dune action figure

She found out she was fired on social media

gina carano jon favreu

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