‘The Mandalorian’: Why Gina Carano Has Been Fired as Cara Dune

The Mandalorian will be without one of its main cast members when it returns later in the year. Gina Carano, who played Cara Dune in the first two seasons, is “not currently employed by Lucasfilm.” This is per a statement from the company after she shared a number of social media posts that expounded conspiracy theories or included comments seen as anti-semitic and transphobic.

After the hashtag #FireGinaCarano between trending on Twitter, Lucasfilm released a statement via The Hollywood Reporter, saying: “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

This brought to an end speculation that Carano was set to be the lead of upcoming Star Wars spin-off Rangers of the New Republic. When that show was announced in late 2020, many fans had tweeted their uneasiness about Carano taking a lead role in the show despite her controversial social media presence.

Fans first called for the actor to be fired in 2020 after she took to Twitter to mock those wearing masks. One such post, for example, read: “Breaking news, Democratic government leaders now recommends we all wear blindfolds along with masks so we can’t see what’s really going on” [sic]. Prior to that, the phrase #GinaCaranoIsOverParty had trended on Twitter after the actor was accused of racism.

Also in November, she tweeted about the debunked conspiracy theory that mass voter fraud had led to Joe Biden winning the election, in a tweet that read: “We need to clean up the election process so we are not left feeling the way we do today. Put laws in place that protect us against voter fraud. Investigate every state. Film the counting. Flush out the fake votes. Require ID. Make Voter Fraud end in 2020. Fix the system.”

Around the time of this message, the actor was dropped by her publicists due to her social media activity.

Gina Carano as Cara Dune. The actor is no longer working on ‘Star Wars’ after a string of controversial Twitter and Instagram posts. Disney+

Lucasfilm’s statement, however, seems to suggest that it was her allegedly anti-semitic tweets that finally caused them to comment. On her Instagram story, she reshared a post reading: “Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children. Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands 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?”

In December 2020, meanwhile, she had posted a meme featuring a group of men playing Monopoly on the backs of a group of naked men, with the caption “All We Have to Do is Stand Up and Their Little Game is Over.” This image is a widely-shared meme that espouses the anti-semitic conspracy theory that a cabal of rich Jews run the world. It is also the same meme that got rapper Ice Cube into hot water on Twitter when he shared it earlier that year.

Yet another controversy saw Carano put the phrase “beep/bop/boop” into her Twitter bio, mocking those who put their pronouns in their bio—common practice among trans and non-binary people as well as their allies.

Unlike many of her other social media actions, Carano apologized for mocking pronouns. The actor said she was educated by her The Mandalorian co-star Pedro Pascal, who has been a vocal champion of his sister Lux as she transitioned. Carano wrote: “He helped me understand why people were putting them in their bios. I didn’t know before but I do now. I won’t be putting them in my bio but good for all you who choose to.”

Speaking on the right-wing Federalist radio show, Carano said of her tweets and social media reposts: “The whole reason I started speaking out is because I feel like there is a large group of people that were being silenced this year and being forced to play this game of wokeism or whatever it is. No matter who you voted for, no matter who you are, I want to create a platform where everybody can have an opportunity. Everybody.”