Gina Carano not fired on political grounds, says Disney CEO

Disney CEO Bob Chapek denies that former MMA star Gina Carano was fired from her role on The Mandalorian on political grounds.

Carano, a pioneer of women’s MMA, played the character Cara Dune on the popular Star Wars spinoff, but was bounced from the show after a number of controversial social media posts. The latest of those posts—and the straw that broke the camel’s back—compared the treatment of American conservatives to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.

Speaking during a shareholders meeting on Tuesday, Chapek was asked about Carano’s firing. In his response—the first he’s made publicly on the topic—Chapek claimed that Disney doesn’t lean left or right on the political spectrum, but that the company does value respect, decency, integrity and inclusion.

“I don’t really see Disney as characterizing itself as left-leaning or right-leaning, yet as standing for values — values that are universal,” Chapek said (via MMA Fighting). “Values of respect, values of decency, values of integrity and values of inclusion.

“And we seek to have not only, how we operate but the content that we make reflective of the rich diversity of the world that we live in.”

Since her firing, Carano has denied that she ever intended to promote anti-semitism and emphasized that she will continue to speak her mind on the issues that she views as important.

“The thought of this happening to anybody else, especially to somebody who could not handle this the way I can, no, they don’t get to do that,” Carano said in an interview with right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, who she will be partnering with on a new film project. 

“They don’t get to make people feel like that (….) and if I buckle, it’ll make it okay for these companies, who have a history of lying, to be lying and to do this to other people, and they’ve done it to other people, and I’m not going down without a fight.”

What do you think of this explanation from Disney CEO Bob Chapek? Where do you stand on Gina Carano losing her job on The Mandalorian?