Star Wars fans are calling on Disney to fire actress Gina Carano from her role as Cara Dune on Lucasfilm's The Mandalorian. The calls for her removal from the Disney Plus series were prompted by a controversial post that Carano shared on social media.
Carano made her first appearance as Cara Dune, a former shock trooper in the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War of the original Star Wars trilogy, in the first season of The Mandalorian. Now operating as a mercenary, Dune would prove to be a reliable ally for the titular Mandalorian throughout the series, most recently assisting him and a team of bounty hunters on a successful mission to rescue Grogu, a.k.a. Baby Yoda, from the clutches of Moff Gideon.
Despite the popularity of the series and perhaps even the character Dune, Carano has come under fire from Star Wars fans due to her controversial right-leaning political views. Just over the past year alone, Carano was criticized for writing social media posts arguing against the use of masks to slow the spread of COVID-19 and supporting the unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud that former President Donald Trump wrongly believes resulted in the 2020 U.S. presidential election turning in then-candidate Joe Biden's favor. Now, Cara is being chastized by Star Wars fans for sharing a social media post on her official Instagram Stories feed that compares the persecution of Jewish people in Nazi Germany to the criticism lobbed at those who share her own political views today. The Mandalorian star is also being criticized for sharing additional posts insinuating that she believes the U.S. press is dishonest, echoing comments frequently made by Trump over the course of his presidency, and mocking those who opt to wear masks in order to protect themselves and others from contracting COVID-19.
In response, fans have expressed surprise that Disney has not fired Carano at this point and recast the role. In fact, at least one fan has suggested Cara Dune should be portrayed by Lana Parrilla, who may best known for her role as The Evil Queen/Regina Mills in Disney-owned ABC's Once Upon A Time, a series that reimagined classic fairy tales characters in the "real world." Another fan noted that they hope Carano will not be involved in the developing series titled Star Wars: Rangers of the New Republic, which was hinted at in the final episodes of The Mandalorian season 2, when the New Republic named Dune the Marshal of the planet Nevarro.
Of course, not everyone believes Carano should be fired for her latest controversial posts, with some Twitter users arguing that being removed from The Mandalorian for her political views would prove her point. However, others have pointed out that Disney did not hesitate to fire James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after offensive tweets the filmmaker wrote several years prior resurfaced, though the company eventually reinstated Gunn as the director of the Marvel Studios film.
At this time, Disney has not commented on Carano's latest social media posts nor the calls to fire her from The Mandalorian. However, the situation has resulted in the hashtag "FireGinaCarano" becoming one of the top trending topics on Twitter.
The Mandalorian is now available on Disney Plus.
Source: Gina Carano/Instagram