Season 3 of “The Mandalorian” is scheduled to be released next year, and one star will not be returning to the series. That star is Gina Carano, or Cara Dune, as she’s known in the show, was fired by Disney and Lucasfilm after a long string of right-wing social media posts, mostly focusing on the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, mocking mask-wearing, and also tweeting false allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election. A source from Lucasfilm told The Hollywood Reporter “They had been looking for an excuse to fire her for 2 months, and today was the final straw.” That ‘final straw’ was a tweet that Carano posted to Instagram in where the person likened conservatives treatment by liberals and those partaking in “cancel culture” to how Jews were treated by the Nazis during The Holocaust. This, unsurprisingly, angered pretty much everyone. #FireGinaCarano was trending worldwide, and the pressure was put on Disney and Lucasfilm to terminate Carano’s employment with them.

On February 10th, Disney fired Carano. While the move was mostly met by praise and applause, many right-winged people disagreed with the firing. They felt as though Disney, and therefore Hollywood, were trying to shun conservative celebrities. Carano was seen as someone who was standing up to the perceived “social justice” that discriminates against Republicans in Hollywood. Republicans argued that this was a “PR stunt” by Disney to make it seem as though they are very inclusive, and it further pushed their idea that Hollywood should shun Republican celebrities. When the pressure was put on Disney as to whether Carano was fired due to her political affiliations or for a “serious” reason. A spokesperson told Variety, “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.” The rage from conservatives has since calmed down, and it is unclear what is going to happen with Carano’s character, Cara Dune.

The firing sparked quite the public debate. The issue became a political one, and it goes to show how far an expression of political affiliation can go in Hollywood. But it is not as simple as that. Punishments need to be handed down to those who deserve them. Carano’s social media posts have been a touchy subject for almost 2 years, and there is no doubt that she had been warned about them before. However, Carano decided to be defiant and therefore paid the price. The former MMA fighter’s credibility in Hollywood has been forever compromised, and it is because of her own doing. Hopefully, this situation will serve as a cautionary tale for everyone, regardless of where they land on the political scale, to be careful of what they post on social media. Disney and Lucasfilm have yet to declare what their plans are for Carano’s character, but all that is known for now is that Carano won’t be seeing much of the force for the rest of her career.