Star Wars fans have seen the last of Cara Dune, at least as played by Gina Carano.
The actress has repeatedly provoked ire for social media posts that mocked transgender-sensitive pronouns, spread anti-science views about quarantine protocols, and suggested the recent presidential election was fraudulent. This week, a now-deleted Instagram post compared criticism of Republican political views to the murderous actions of Nazis, and led to the hashtag #FireGinaCarano, which trended all day on Twitter as fans voiced their outrage.
This evening, Lucasfilm issued this statement: “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.” (Carano’s manager did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Hollywood Reporter published that she also had been dropped by United Talent Agency. We will update this post as the story develops.)
Carano, a former MMA fighter who starred in Steven Soderbergh‘s 2011 action film Haywire, played Cara Dune on the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. Her character was a former Rebel fighter, struggling to find purpose in the galaxy after the defeat of the Empire. It’s not clear at this point whether the character will simply disappear, be recast, or dispatched offscreen in some other manner.
Cara Dune was hailed as a breakthrough for women in the sci-fi/fantasy franchise, a physically strong warrior whose toughness matched the steely personality of the masked bounty hunter of the title. She could lead a raid on a bomb-making compound, hold back an onslaught of stormtroopers, and had even recently taken up the role of law enforcement for the New Republic, bringing order to her corner of the universe where might tended to dominate the weak or needy.
The discord on social media began after the first season. As Vanity Fair reported in November when the #FireGinaCarano hashtag first began trending, Carano’s political tweets antagonized a wide array of fans. The pain was felt acutely by those who admired her character the most, including some who cosplayed as Cara Dune and hoped the spirit of the hero matched the feelings of the person performing her.
Rather than deescalate the tensions, Carano continued to post inflammatory political remarks to social media, apparently crossing a line this week with the Nazi post, which seems to have led Lucasfilm to end its connection with her.
Since she is not currently filming anything related to Star Wars, she was not technically fired. But it’s certainly clear that she will not be journeying any further through the galaxy.
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
— Stanley Tucci on His Love Story With Colin Firth
— Why We Can’t Let Media Executives Reward Trump’s Cronies
— The Hidden History of the Mary Pickford Cocktail
— Thank You, Leslie Jones, for Making the News Feel Bearable
— Cover Story: The Charming Billie Eilish
— A Complete Beginner’s Guide to WandaVision
— Gillian Anderson Breaks Down Her Career, From The X-Files to The Crown
— From the Archive: Douglas Fairbanks Jr. on the Real Mary Pickford
— Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.