Gina Carano’s Cara Dune Action Figures Cancelled By Hasbro
Actress Gina Carano has been the center of a lot of news and controversy lately. Amidst her firing from The Mandalorian show and recently signing a new deal with Daily Wire, we now have more news following the former MMA star. According to The Direct, Gina Carano’s Cara Dune figure is to be cancelled by Hasbro.
Merchandising has always played a huge role in the world of Star Wars. Hasbro, the company currently in charge of the figure rights for the series, revealed that they will not be relaunching their planned Cara Dune Black Series 6” Vintage Figures. This no doubt comes as a result of both her firing from Lucasfilm and her controversial social media posts from the past few months. However, Hasbro has stated that they intend to release the Retro Collection as planned. Presumably, this is due to production on the figures being so far along that cancellation is not a financially viable option for the business. However, the ceasing of production of the Cara Dune figure would seem to suggest it may become a valuable piece worth picking up in the eyes of collectors.
This decision likely comes from a desire of Hasbro to follow Disney and Lucasfilm’s stance of cutting ties entirely with Carano, which is seemingly backed in opinion by Lucasfilm’s parent company Disney. Lucasfilm stated,
“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 or religious identities is abhorrent and unacceptable.”
While Disney has not officially released a statement outside of the one mentioned above by Lucasfilm, Disney is no stranger to parting ways with people who do not meet their standards while employed with Disney.
Gina Carano has been the center of several controversial topics going back to August of last year. Most recently with a post seemingly stating that members of the Republican party are being treated similarly to the Jewish people of Nazi Germany. She has also previously made comments about election fraud as well as being accused of mocking the transgender community. This has lead to speculation that Disney and Lucasfilm had been looking to part ways with Carano for some time, and her most recent social media activity was the final straw for them.
It was believed that Carano would return in season 3 of The Mandalorian and would also star in or make appearances in one or more of the several spin-offs announced by Disney during their investor call in December. One of the new series, Rangers of the New Republic, was expected to have Carano as the central character of the series, though this was never confirmed. This would seemingly pose a problem for the production of those shows depending on how far into development they are. However, while Cara Dune’s character always felt important in the episode she was in, she never seemed completely essential for the progression of The Mandalorian series itself. The Rangers of the New Republic spin-off also appears to be early enough in production that it could change leading characters without affecting the overall plot of the show. It is worth noting that it has not been stated whether there is a plan to recast or write out Carano’s character in the future series. Also, The Mandalorian producers and writers, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, have yet to make their own comments following the statement.
As stated above, it is unclear whether the character will make an appearance in the Star Wars franchise going forward, but The Mandalorian will be continuing into season 3. This will also be accompanied by a side story titled The Book of Boba Fett, and several other spin-offs for the Star Wars universe.
Source(s): The Direct