Gina Carano has been let go from the smash hit series The Mandalorian, but fans already have a replacement in mind: Lucy Lawless of Xena: Warrior Princess fame.
Fans of Disney+’s Star Wars series took to Twitter after Carano’s firing to advocate for the 52-year-old New Zealander actress, who has already proven she can handle an action series.
Carano’s dismissal for an anti-Semitic Instagram post came after Disney+ had already canceled plans to have her character star in a spin-off series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Face swap: Fans of Disney+’s The Mandalorian are calling on the series to replace fired star Gina Carano, 38, with Xena: Warrior Princess’ Lucy lawless, 52. Plans for a spin-off for Carano were also scrapped, according to The Hollywood Reporter
On Twitter, some users had already come up with how to explain Lawless possibly replacing Carano, 38, on The Mandalorian.
‘”My lame cousin died from a Wampa attack. Anyway, my name’s Lara Dune.” -Lucy Lawless in season 3 episode one of The Mandalorian,’ joked one person.
Another user wrote, ‘Hey @themandalorian and @PedroPascal1 I wonder if @RealLucyLawless is free to drop in…,’ while sharing a Photoshopped image of Carano in which her face had been replaced with Lawless’.
Some fans didn’t even think it was necessary to create a new character for Lawless to play.
Simple enough: On Twitter, some users had already come up with how to explain Lawless possibly replacing Carano, 38, on The Mandalorian
Picture perfect: One user Photoshopped Lawless’ face in place of Carano’s
Simple: Some fans didn’t even think it was necessary to create a new character for Lawless to play
‘They can keep Cara Dune in the Mandalorian. Just get Lucy Lawless to play her instead,’ one user suggested.
Lawless is best known for playing the eponymous character on Xena: Warrior Princess, which aired from 1995 to 2001.
The show was a spin-off from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, though Lawless’ program outlasted the original series by three years.
She also had a well-received recurring role on the critically acclaimed reboot that debuted in 2004.
Iconic role: Lawless is best known for playing the eponymous character on Xena: Warrior Princess, which aired from 1995 to 2001
Carano’s time on the Mandalorian came to a swift end on Wednesday after Lucasfilm, which produces Star Wars properties, announced she was no longer with the series after she shared an anti-Semitic post on Instagram.
It read: ‘Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors… even by children… Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?’
Carano has long been open about her right-wing and pro-Trump views on Twitter and other social media platforms.
Done: Carano’s time on the Mandalorian came to a swift end on Wednesday after Lucasfilm, which produces Star Wars properties, announced she was no longer with the series after she shared an anti-Semitic post on Instagram; seen with Carl Weathers
Offensive: The post conflated being a modern-day American conservative with being a Jew in Nazi Germany, while showing a poor grasp of the history of Nazi Germany
Not the first time: Carano had shared an anti-Semitic meme in December, but her tweets mocking mask use and claiming the November election was fraudulent were the final straw for Disney, according to THR
Back in November, she came under fire for tweets making fun of mask use to slow the spread of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
She also tweeted out false claims that the presidential election had been influenced by voter fraud.
In December, she shared a repurposed image that had previously been used in Anti-Semitic memes, though the text didn’t explicitly reference Jews.
According to a source who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, Carano was already on the outs with Disney, but the company was simply looking for a reason to give her the boot.
‘They have been looking for a reason to fire her for two months, and today was the final straw,’ the source said.
Changing its mind: Multiple sources told The Hollywood Reporter that Carano would star in a spin-off, but Disney backed off plans to announce it in December following her controversial November tweets; seen in 2019 in Anaheim, California
Multiple sources told the publication that Disney planned to announce that Carano would star in a spin-off series during its investor’s day presentation in December, but it canceled those plans after her November tweets.
The upcoming series Rangers Of The New Republic would have seemed like a logical place to continue her character Cara Dune’s story, but she won’t be appearing on the show now.
Carano got more bad news on Wednesday after her talent agency UTA also dropped her as a client.
The actress got her start as a mixed martial arts fighter, before earning praise for her lead role in Steven Soderbergh’s action film Haywire.
In addition to roles in straight-to-video films, she had a supporting role in Fast & Furious 6 and in 2016’s Deadpool.