Lucasfilm Cuts Ties With Gina Carano After “Abhorrent” Social Media Messages

Former Mandalorian star Gina Carano will no longer appear in any Lucasfilm projects.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Lucasfilm formally announced her departure from the series in a press release late Wednesday night. “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” the statement read. “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.” The decision to let her go is the culmination of nearly a year’s worth of social media posts by Carano on various platforms indicating certain radical beliefs about wearing masks during the pandemic, using certain pronouns for transgender and non-binary people, voter fraud, and, most recently, a false equivalency between the criticism she has faced for these opinions and the pogroms against Jews in Nazi Germany.

Though this latest message was delivered via a temporary Instagram story, the Internet never forgets. A fire was lit under the already existing #FireGinaCarano hashtag even as most media sites spent much of yesterday chronicling the fallout from Charisma Carpenter‘s statement about the harassment she suffered via the words and deeds of controversial Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon.

It was a big day for reckonings in the geek space.

But as THR alleges, Lucasfilm was already looking to part ways with Carano for at least the last two months. Indeed, it seems she was slated to be the star of Disney+’s upcoming Mandalorian spinoff, Rangers of the New Republic, but Lucasfilm chose not to reveal casting information during December’s Investor Day presentation because of her posting behavior. Although, it is also possible Carano began posting about her opinions because Lucasfilm made a decision about her future and there was nothing left to lose.

Sadly, the isolation Carano felt might happen is something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since Lucasfilm made its statement, talent agency UTA also dropped her from their client list.

In terms of The Mandalorian, the loss of Carano is not an insurmountable hurdle. Appearing in only a handful of episodes, the character had yet to really establish an arc — although Cara Dune’s elevation from mercenary to Outer Rim marshal suggests a certain amount of character growth — and her seemingly sudden disappearance would not necessarily require a lot of story time to explain. Considering the way Season 2 ended, a time jump is likely with all of the characters united to protect Grogu going their separate ways. That said, an online fan campaign to see the character recast with Lucy Lawless is gaining some traction. Of course, it is up to executive producer Jon Favreau to make the ultimate decision about Cara’s fate.