When I first saw the Funko for Cara Dune, I was in love. I loved her Rebel Alliance tattoo. I loved the idea that she fought so vehemently against the Empire that she had to go into hiding and didn’t even care. She still just wanted to do what was right and fight for freedom. I was excited about where her character could go and what that meant for the Star Wars franchise. Now? All of that is ruined because of Gina Carano’s Twitter account.
And sure, I could subscribe to the idea of separating the art from the artist, but when it comes to a character like Cara Dune, it just doesn’t feel fair that someone like Carano (who has recently taken to Twitter to show her true colors time and time again, including sharing anti-mask nonsense) gets to bring to life a character who would oppose everything she represents.
Not only is she spreading anti-mask tweets and spending her time liking and RTing far-right viewpoints, but she also mocked pronoun preferences back in September on Twitter. She constantly says that she wants to share joy and happiness and yet does the opposite online and acts like a victim of cyber-bullying when people are just trying to explain to her why what she’s posting is dangerous.
But all of this, while upsetting, just hurts so much more when I think about what Cara Dune meant to me and so many others. She was a strong character who stood up against evil, fought to be on the right side of history with the Rebels, and then Carano herself somehow sided with our own version of the Empire?
Before people yell at me and tell me that Trump and his subsequent supporters are not the Empire, let me point out some things and you tell me who I’m talking about: discredits the media, lies to gain power, uses fear as a tactic to garner support, and refuses to concede said power even though democracy has voted to take said power away from them. If you said both the Trump administration and Palpatine and the Empire, you’d be correct!
So to see someone like Carano then get to play a character who hates those things so completely, who fought against the Empire with everything in her power? It’s upsetting to me and ruins a character that I looked up to and hoped to see more of. Now, I just want Cara to be in season 2 and then no more.
And it’s not as simple as a difference of viewpoints. Yes, I hate that Jon Voight is so vocal about Donald Trump, but I’ll watch Ray Donovan for the rest of the cast like I will do with The Mandalorian because I love Pedro Pascal, this world, and the Baby Yoda adventures. It’s that Carano is sharing information that is harmful and doesn’t seem to care.
Nearly 250,000 Americans died in the last 9 months because of people like Carano refusing to take a virus seriously and protesting masks as if they’re some kind of burden. That’s not someone I want to see get to play a character like Cara Dune because I don’t think Cara would agree with anything Carano has done on Twitter. That’s like if Chris Evans were somehow a Trump supporter. It’d make no sense for someone who plays Captain America to look at the current administration and not be like, “Well, hold on a gosh darn minute.”
There was even a time when fans wanted Gina Carano to star as the next Wonder Woman, and honestly, that would have hurt so much more. You CANNOT look at Diana Prince and love her and not see why supporting Trump—or conservative conspiracy theories that masquerade as free-thinking rebellion—is the direct opposite of her message, which is, honestly, the same deal with Cara Dune.
So, yes, this is upsetting, and Gina Carano clearly doesn’t want to listen to why. If she wanted to have a conversation and hear why this is hurtful to fans who looked up to her, I’d gladly talk to her about it. But instead, she’s probably on Parler posting about how masks are keeping people from going to concerts and getting COVID while listening to some sweet tunes.
(image: Lucasfilm)
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