If you want a guide on how to speedrun killing your career, look no further than Gina Carano. The former MMA fighter turned actor landed a plum role in The Mandalorian as Rebel commando Cara Dune. She was considered one of the highlights of the first season, had her part expanded for the second, and Lucasfilm began developing a spinoff titled Rangers of the New Republic that’d focus on her adventures.
Despite this success, however, she just couldn’t stop posting controversial stuff on social media, regularly putting up bizarre pro-disease takes, promoting every crazy conspiracy theory she encountered and, finally, comparing being criticized for her political opinions to the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust. It’s that last one that caused the hammer to fall, with Disney giving her the heave-ho and describing her Twitter posts as “abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Now, Deadline is reporting that she’s also been dropped by her talent agency, UTA. It’s fairly easy to understand why, too, as Carano sounds like a nightmare client who cannot help herself from causing controversy about once a week. It’s notable that she briefly employed PR specialists ID in late 2020, only for them to ditch her after she insisted on continuing to make baseless posts about COVID-19 and voter fraud.
So, what’s next for Carano? Well, this trajectory is well worn by now, meaning we have a decent idea. Expect her to pop up on Tucker Carlson in the next few days to complain about being cancelled and then go on to appear on a bunch of far-right podcasts, maybe also releasing a ghost-written book called ‘Cara Don’t’ or ‘Cara-No’ (or something similar). After that, she can look forward to starring in various straight-to-VOD movies alongside Kevin Sorbo, Dean Cain and the rest in which she befriends talking animals and finds Jesus.
It’s a shame that Gina Carano came down with a terminal case of brainworms, as I genuinely enjoyed her performances in The Mandalorian, but her being fired isn’t surprising at all, as she appeared to be practically begging Disney to give her the boot.