'The Mandalorian' Star Gina Carano Fired Amid Social Media Controversy

The Mandalorian star Gina Carano has been fired from the Star Wars universe, Disney and Lucasfilm have announced.

Actress Gina Carano has found herself under fire more times than her character Cara Dune on the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. On Wednesday Carano faced new backlash across social media for comments she posted on Instagram earlier in the week.

While Disney+ hasn’t remained quiet in the past, it isn’t as likely that it can avoid this latest round of highly charged comments. In one of the posts, the controversial actress suggested today’s political divide was similar to the situation in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

Multiple sources including Variety reported that Carano posted, “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 another post, Carano showed a photo of an individual with several cloth masks covering the person’s head, with the caption, “Meanwhile in California.” Both of those posts had been removed from the actress’s account by Wednesday afternoon, but other controversial posts have remained.

It didn’t long on Wednesday for the hashtag #FireGinaCarano to once again make the rounds, and that was tagged to the social media accounts for not only Disney and Disney+ but also “Star Wars” and Lucasfilms. Several users on Twitter even reposted screen captures of Carano’s original comments from Instagram.

did she just compare the holocaust to being a republican .. #FireGinaCarano pic.twitter.com/an3css7Kdr

— janet (@djarinculture) February 10, 2021

What is notable about this turn of events is that it comes less than two weeks after the #WeLoveCaraDune and #WeLoveGinaCarano hashtags trended on social media and seemingly drown out the #FireGinaCarano hashtag.

The question now is whether this latest incident of bad judgment on social media could be the one that does call Disney to action – and that could be nixing any plans for a Cara Dune spin off or possibly disintegrating of the character completely.

Tech industry analyst Rob Enderle suggested that the Mouse House really has no tolerance for this kind of thing at all.

“Her latest post crosses many lines that Disney will see as significant red flags,” Enderle, who is principal analyst at the Enderle Group, explained in an email. “I expect she has ended her career with them at this point.”

Extreme commentary on social has ended prominent careers in the past, and that included Rosanne Barr, who was famously fired from her own sitcom on ABC, which is also owned by Disney. Other actors may tread more carefully, especially if Disney does fire Carano.

“This series of events showcases both the risk of social media to careers and the growing risk of conservative media’s false positions on reputations and job opportunities,” added Enderle.

“It won’t be hard for people to extend these remarks back to historical quotes by Walt Disney that could damage the Disney brand far beyond the benefit she provides as an actor,” said Enderle. “Disney has a hard rule about being on and off stage – when you are in public, you are on message, and social media is public – and preserving the Disney brand image that she just broke severely. I don’t see her surviving this latest mistake.”

February 11, 2021