By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Gina Carano, the “Mandalorian” actress who was dropped from the “Star Wars” spinoff over what the studio called “abhorrent and unacceptable” social media posts, said on Friday she will make a film with conservative company The Daily Wire.
Walt Disney Co’s Lucasfilm studio said on Wednesday it would no longer work with her after she posted on Instagram drawing parallels between persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany and the treatment of people who hold conservative political views today.
The Daily Wire said Carano will produce and star in an upcoming film exclusively for subscribers to its website, which was co-founded by conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro.
In a statement on the site, Carano said she was sending a message of hope to everyone living in fear of cancellation by what she called “the totalitarian mob.”
“I have only just begun using my voice which is now freer than ever before … They can’t cancel us if we don’t let them.”
Carano also came under fire for posts on Twitter in November in which she derided mask-wearing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and for promoting baseless claims of voter fraud after the U.S. presidential election.
Quoting sources, the Hollywood Reporter said Lucasfilm had been going to unveil Carano as the star of her own Disney+ series during a December investor’s day presentation but scrapped those plans following her November tweets.
A Disney spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that report.
Shapiro said The Daily Wire aimed to “provide an alternative not just for consumers, but for creators who refuse to bow to the mob.”
“We’re just as eager to show Hollywood that if they want to keep cancelling those who think differently, they’ll just be helping us build the X-wing to take down their Death Star,” he said in a statement on the Daily Wire website.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
