Having already come under fire for what were perceived to be extreme right-wing views on several different occasions, Lucasfilm fired Gina Carano from her role as Cara Dune on Disney+'s The Mandalorian last week after her latest "abhorrent and unacceptable" social media post.
While most seemed to agree with the decision, many jumped to Carano's defence, with the actress herself defiantly sticking to her guns. She later announced that she's developing a new project with conservative political commentator and media host Ben Shapiro.
Among those who penned a piece in defence of Carano was NY Times writer Bari Weiss, who reached out to the former MMA fighter to get her side of the story. As it turns out, Gina wasn't made aware that Lucasfilm had severed ties with her until she saw the news on social media along with the rest of us.
Carano also says that Lucasfilm wanted her to "use their exact wording for an apology over pronoun usage," and when she told them she'd rather put put her own statement, they excluded her from all press and promotion for the The Mandalorian.
“That was heart-breaking, but I didn't want to take away from the hard work of everyone who worked on the project, so I said ok," recalls the actress. "That was the last time I was contacted about any type of public statement or apology from Lucasfilm. I found out through social media, like everyone else, that I had been fired.”
Carano was set to reprise the role of the tough-as-nails former Rebel shock trooper for The Mandalorian season 3, and was expected to feature prominently in the recently announced Rangers of the New Republic spin-off. It also recently came to light that there were plans for her to headline yet another Disney+ Star Wars show.
We still don't know if Lucasfilm intends to recast Dune or simply drop the character altogether, but since she wasn't really integral to the plot of The Mandalorian (not yet, at least), we reckon it'll be the latter.