Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano make weight for Netflix superfight
Watch women’s MMA legends Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano step on the scale for their main event.
Mixed martial artist Gina Carano is returning to the ring nearly 17 years after her last fight, facing Ronda Rousey on Saturday, May 16.
In the years since she last fought, Carano broke into acting and starred in 2010s films including “Haywire” and “Fast and the Furious 6.” She ended up getting a significant role in the 2019 Disney+ series “The Mandalorian,” the first Star Wars series on the new streaming platform.
Carano appeared in two seasons of the show, but the production companies cut ties with her in early 2021 after a string of controversial social media posts that included mocking COVID mask mandates, alleging fraud in the 2020 presidential election and finally, comparing the treatment of Republicans to that of Jews in Nazi Germany.
After she was let go, Carano was painted as a martyr by her supporters. In 2022, she starred in a film produced by right-wing outlet “The Daily Wire” and another about Hunter Biden, distributed by Breitbart News.
Carano filed a lawsuit – funded by Elon Musk – against Disney for wrongful termination, which was settled in 2025.
Here’s what to know about Carano’s turn on Star Wars and where she stands in a galaxy far, far away:
What did Gina Carano say to get fired from Disney?
In the months leading up to her firing, Carano posted messages on social media alleging fraud in the 2020 election and mocking COVID mask mandates.
Finally, just weeks into Joe Biden’s presidency – and barely a month after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol – Carano shared a post suggesting that Republicans were being treated like Jews in Nazi Germany.
“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children,” Carano wrote on her IG stories, accompanied by a sad face emoji.
She also said in quotation marks: “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?”
That post was the final straw for her employers.
“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” the company said in a statement. “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Cara Dune: Gina Carano’s Star Wars character
Carano’s character Cara Dune, was introduced in the first season of “The Mandalorian” as a former Rebel shock trooper hardened by the Galactic Civil War. At the end of the season, Cara helped the Mandalorian eliminate an Imperial remnant on the planet Nevarro and decided to stay after the mission to help law enforcement.
When we meet Cara again in Season 2, she is the marshal of Nevarro and recruits the Mandalorian to destroy another Imperial base on the planet. Later in the season, she joins the titular character’s team to rescue Grogu from the show’s villain Moff Gideon.
After Carano was fired, the audience learns in Season 3 that Cara Dune had been recruited to join the New Republic’s special forces and was no longer on Nevarro. Dune’s home planet was revealed to be Alderaan (where Princess Leia grew up), which was destroyed by the Death Star early in the original 1977 film.
Is Gina Carano in ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’?
Probably not.
The new movie will be released May 22 and is the first theatrical release of a “Star Wars” film since 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.”
But of note: In its statement confirming the settlement of Carano’s lawsuit in 2024, Lucasfilm said that the company looked forward to “identifying opportunities to work together with Ms. Carano in the near future.”
Carano also told The Hollywood Reporter that she had spoken to the creators of “The Mandalorian” early in 2026 on a Zoom call.
“I think it was, ‘Let’s touch base,'” Carano said. “Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were two people that I always respected, and we went through two seasons together, and we had a great relationship. And even during everything that was happening, Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau were never the bad guys to me.”
She added: “It was an important conversation. To Zoom, to see each other, to mend whatever, to make sure everybody was good,” she told THR. “And everybody was good.”
In December 2020, Disney announced a new live-action Star Wars show, “Rangers of the New Republic” that was expected to feature Carano’s character in her role as law enforcement for the budding New Republic, picking up where her story left off in Season 2 of “The Mandalorian.”
The show never came to pass after Carano was ousted, but that’s hardly unusual for Disney and the Star Wars franchise, which have announced a handful of projects that didn’t come to fruition in recent years.
