Gina Carano Was Getting Her Own Star Wars Series Before The Mandalorian Firing

On Wednesday, news broke that Gina Carano, best known for playing Cara Dune on the first two seasons of the Disney+ series Star Wars: The Mandalorian, has been fired from not just the series, but will no longer be part of the larger Star Wars franchise. Now, more details are merging and a new report from The Hollywood Reporter indicates that Carano had been set to star in her own Star Wars spinoff series, though plans for that changed following controversy over her social media posts back in November.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a source indicated that Lucasfilm had plans to announce that Carano would be the star of her own show back during Disney's investor day presentation in December, but scrubbed those plans due to her tweets at that time, which included controversial posts about mask-wearing during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 presidential election. Sources also told the outlet that Lucasfilm had been "looking for a reason to fire her for two months" seeming to stem back to those November tweets with Wednesday's controversial tweets being the final straw.

"They have been looking for a reason to fire her for two months, and today was the final straw," a source says in the report.

Carano first appeared as Cara Dune in the first season of The Mandalorian in the episode "Sanctuary" and quickly became a fan-favorite. Even in December it was speculated by many fans that Carano could star in one of the multiple Mandalorian spinoffs in the works from executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. However, Carano's social media posts have apparently ended any chance of that. It's unclear at this time how Carano's character will be dealt with in the upcoming third season of The Mandalorian.

On Wednesday, Carano shared several controversial and anti-Semitic posts on social media, prompting backlash and the trending of the #FireGinaCarano hastag on Twitter. On Wednesday evening, Lucasfilm issued a statement confirming that Carano was no longer employed by Lucasfilm.

"Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future," the statment from Lucasfilm reads. "Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable."

The first two seasons of The Mandalorian are now streaming on Disney+. The third season of the series is set to begin filming in April.