Gina Carano is back in the news with a very high-profile fight against Ronda Rousey taking place on May 16 on Netflix, attempting to be the new home of spectacle bouts between well-known names. This one does not involve a Paul brother, however.
Carano has been the subject of intense controversy since she was fired by Disney from her role in The Mandalorian, leading to a wrongful termination lawsuit that was settled. At the time, one of her requests was to be rehired in her former role in Star Wars, which seemed a bit wild. Now? She’s implying it could actually happen.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani, in which she discusses her “cancelation,” Carano revealed that she’s already spoken to new Lucasfilm co-CEO Dave Filoni and The Mandalorian and Grogu director Jon Favreau. Here’s what she said:
“I’ve already had a conversation with Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau. We got onto a Zoom call. It was really nice. Dave is taking over as CEO of Star Wars. We didn’t miss a beat. Jon Favreau got on Zoom and was really funny. He was like so; where did we leave off?”
Where they left off was that Carano’s Cara Dune was written off the show when previously, she was poised to remain a major supporting character. There were even reports of a “Rangers of the New Republic” spinoff show that she may have starred in. And perhaps it was no coincidence it was scrapped after she was fired.
Carano, who became a right-wing icon for her “free speech” lawsuit after allegedly anti-trans positions and comments comparing republicans to jews persecuted in WWII, would face a whole lot of additional controversy should she return to Star Wars by some fans, while others would celebrate it. But how this would even happen, logistically, in the current state of Star Wars productions remains unclear.
The Mandalorian and Grogu is already done, out next month, and she is certainly not in it. That is supposed to be the end of their saga with no season 5 to come. The Book of Boba Fett, with an adjacent storyline and topic, was one of the worst-received Disney+ shows and will not return. So, in that time period, that leaves Dave Filoni’s Ahoska, which again, is already filming, no doubt without Carano, not that it would make any sense to have a side marshal character in that storyline at all. Nor does it seem likely that one of Disney’s new projects would be resurrecting that old spinoff where she could star.
The fact that she even had this call at all, of course, raises questions as to why Filoni and Favreau would be interested in her return when it definitely does not seem like she would fit anywhere in the current Star Wars landscape. If anything comes of this, I would be surprised, but I’m already a bit surprised that it happened at all.
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