Updated with additional comments from Carano and Ben Shapiro.
Gina Carano has defiantly responded to her ousting from The Mandalorian by announcing a new partnership with The Daily Wire, a conservative website that will finance a forthcoming movie starring the embattled former MMA fighter. Carano played Cara Dune in the first two seasons of The Mandalorian but has long been a lightning rod for controversy due to her highly provocative social media posts.
Carano has raised eyebrows in the past, seemingly disparaging the trans community and mocking those who wear masks during the pandemic. Still, the last straw came when she compared her conservative views to being a Holocaust survivor. Disney quickly confirmed they’re no longer in business with Carano and that her social media posts were “abhorrent.”
But Carano’s doubling down, announcing via Deadline that she’s teaming with Ben Shapiro’s The Daily Wire to produce and star in a new movie and will fight back against her “cancellation.”
The Daily Wire is helping make one of my dreams — to develop and produce my own film — come true. I cried out and my prayer was answered. I am sending out a direct message of hope to everyone living in fear of cancellation by the totalitarian mob. I have only just begun using my voice which is now freer than ever before, and I hope it inspires others to do the same. They can’t cancel us if we don’t let them.
Shapiro voiced his excitement for Carano’s involvement with The Daily Wire’s burgeoning entertainment wing, as well as his long documented disdain for what he perceives as liberal Hollywood.
We could not be more excited to be working with Gina Carano, an incredible talent dumped by Disney and Lucasfilm for offending the authoritarian Hollywood Left. This is what Daily Wire exists to do: provide an alternative not just for consumers, but for creators who refuse to bow to the mob.
Carano further commented on the partnership with The Daily Wire in response to a tweet from Shapiro promoting a discount on The Daily Wire subscriptions. “This is just the beginning.. welcome to the rebellion,” Carano wrote.
Carano and Shapiro both frame the star’s dismissal from Disney and Lucasfilm as the result of mob rule, rather than a direct result of her offensive actions. Disney is not administrated based on the musings of liberals on social media. Carano has an established history of making outrageous and offensive comments and acting as if she was ignorant of the hate she was spreading. Disney is not in the business of offending its consumers, and Carano’s ideology regarding the trans community and the pandemic place her decidedly outside of the mainstream. It’s genuinely baffling why Carano decided to sabotage herself in such an explosive way for such a narrow belief system, but here we are.
Perhaps The Daily Wire will be a better creative partner for Carano in the long run. Shapiro and his cohorts rail against the notion of “cancel culture” constantly and generally see Hollywood and the entertainment industry at large as social and political adversaries, espousing an ideology of inclusion and empathy that they reject. This seems to fit with Carano’s worldview, and it’s good that she’ll have some similarly minded collaborators, even if it’s unclear what sort of audience is clamoring for movies from The Daily Wire.
It’s not yet known if Cara Dune will be recast or removed from The Mandalorian. She’s an integral character for the show’s first two seasons, but it’s not hard to imagine the show without her. Regardless, Carano’s career will go on, just in a decidedly different manner, and likely on a much smaller scale.
