Gina Carano Sues Disney Over ‘Mandalorian’ Firing

One of the mainstay characters in the early seasons of The Mandalorian was Cara Dune, a former Rebel turned mercenary whose path crosses repeatedly with the title character. Dune was played by Gina Carano, who Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau supposedly had in mind when he first envisioned the character.

Cara Dune was in seven episodes of The Mandalorian Seasons 1 and 2. There were also rumors that she would star in a Mandalorian spinoff show that Lucasfilm announced but never made, titled Rangers of the New Republic. But then after Season 2 Carano began drawing an enormous amount of attention and controversy due to posts she made on her Twitter account. (Among the subjects she tweeted about, Carano made a post comparing the treatment of Republicans in America to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany, and one claiming that Jeffrey Epstein was murdered.)

Eventually, the noise around Carano’s statements grew so large that Lucasfilm released a statement that read “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.”

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At the start of Mandalorian Season 3, Cara Dune was written out of the show. Carano hasn’t been seen in the Star Wars universe since. Now she has decided to take her removal from the show to court, and has filed suit against Disney for wrongful termination and discrimination.

In her suit, according to The Hollywood Reporter, she “seeks a court order that would force Lucasfilm to recast her” along with at least $75,000 and punitive damages.

Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter) is funding Carano’s suit; in a statement, the company said “As a sign of X Corp’s commitment to free speech, we’re proud to provide financial support for Gina Carano’s lawsuit, empowering her to seek vindication of her free speech rights on X and the ability to work without bullying, harassment, or discrimination.”

In a statement of her own, Carano claimed “some of us have been unjustly singled out, harassed, persecuted and had our livelihoods stripped away because we dared to encourage conversation, asked questions, and refused to go along with the mob.”

Carano first gained fame as a mixed martial artist, before shifting into a career making action movies. Her big break in Hollywood came in 2011, when Steven Soderbergh cast her in the lead of his spy thriller Haywire.