Earlier this year, Disney made headlines when it fired The Mandalorian star Gina Carano over what it called “abhorrent and unacceptable” social media posts. That may have torpedoed plans for an entire spinoff show — last we saw Carano’s character Cara Dune, she was being recruited to working in the newly formed republic government, and soon after she was fired Disney revealed that its new show Rangers of the New Republic was “not currently in active development.”
But that wasn’t the only option. Some fans wanted Disney to recast Cara Dune, and suggested Xena: Warrior Princess star Lucy Lawless as a good replacement. I can see that; Lawless built her career on playing tough, no-nonsense characters who could hold their own in a fight, which is a good match for Cara.
But even though those fans had good intentions, they might have mucked things up for Lawless, who revealed to Metro that she was already talking to Lucasfilm about appearing in an entirely different Star Wars thing when the campaign began. “It might have hurt me in some way, because then they couldn’t hire me because it would seem to be pandering to… I’m just guessing here, I don’t know anything, but in some ways, it can be unhelpful, because if they pander to this fan group, then how are you going to pander to every other fan group, do you know what I mean?” she said.
The Gina Carano situation made hiring Lucy Lawless look like “a political appointment”
Basically, Lawless wonders if the fans suggesting that she replace Gina Carano turned her into a bit of a political lightning rod within the company, even though she had nothing to do with Carano’s firing. “I became political and I had nothing to do with the discussion.”
That said, she’s not holding any grudges and appreciates that fans saw her as a good fit for the character of Cara Dune. “But that’s the way the world is and they meant it out of love, and I thank the fans for their fealty to me,” she said. “I haven’t thought about that since, so it hasn’t given me any pain, but that was my thought at the time, like, ooh, this makes me look like a political appointment, and not an actress.”
And what was the other Star Wars thing that Lawless was actually being considered for? Between all the upcoming movies and show, it could have been just about anything:
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