Disney and Lucasfilm released a statement tonight stating the company has parted ways with Gina Carano after a series of controversial social media posts.
“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent an unacceptable.”
Disney’s smash Star Wars streaming series The Mandalorian has been breaking new ground when it comes to what it means to be a Star Wars story. The show focuses on the meaning of family being what you make it, overcoming significant odds, and the importance of accepting others for what they are. So when Carano, who played bounty hunter Cara Dune on the first two seasons of the show, started turning heads on social media with posts that were taken to be out of character for the show’s message, many thought her time on the show was limited.
I won’t go into the details, but I will say recent posts made by Carano on Tik Tok and Instagram clearly went over the line. Add this to her previous controversial statements making fun of people using preferred pronouns on social media and denying the legitimacy of the recent Presidential election, and Lucasfilm’s decision is very understandable.
A third season of Star Wars’ The Mandalorian is being planned for Disney+, but first we’ll get a series focused on that more popular bounty hunter– Boba Fett.
There had been some online chatter about how Carano’s Cara Dune would be part of the upcoming Star Wars: Rangers of the New Republic show that was announced for Disney+. If that was true, she’s definitely not in the cast any more.