Pedro Pascal Has Gina Carano's Back Amid Controversy

Season 2 of The Mandalorian is now airing new episodes on Disney+, and it's providing all of that sweet Star Wars nostalgia fans have been hoping for. So far in the series, Mando (Pedro Pascal) has gone from one planet to the next trying to return the Child back to its people. He's gone up against everything from a krayt dragon to ice spiders, but now, the show is going up against one of its most formidable foes yet: angry fans. 

For the last several months, there has been a growing movement online to remove Gina Carano from The Mandalorian, the Star Wars series on which she plays Cara Dune. These campaigns have only intensified in recent days due to Cara Dune having a prominent role on the most recent episode of The Mandalorian, "The Siege." The controversy will likely only grow more pronounced now that it appears that Pascal may have stood up for his co-star over Instagram — even though his own stances seem to be in conflict with hers.

As outlined by Men's Health, the problem some fans have with Carano stems from earlier this year when some fans asked her to voice her support for the Black Lives Matter movement over social media, which Carano refused to do. Later, activists asked Carano to include pronouns in her Twitter bio as a way of normalizing the practice in support of the transgender community. Again, she refused to do so, and instead, she put "Beep/bop/boop" in her profile, which many people took as a demeaning jab against the trans community.

In the last month, Carano has posted an array of far-right beliefs on her Twitter account, including a post suggesting massive voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election took place, despite no such evidence existing. She's also posted anti-mask memes in light of the pandemic and has even stated how she's moving over to Parler, a new social media app with a predominantly right-wing user base. Such posts have led to the use of "#FireGinaCarano" to trend on Twitter, with many fans calling for the actress to be recast or written off the series. In response to the hashtag, other users have resorted to using "#StandWithGinaCarano" to voice their support of the actress. 

In light of the controversy, the cast and crew of The Mandalorian has remained quiet about whether Carano should stay or go, and while Pedro Pascal, who plays Mando on the show, hasn't offered anything in the way of an official backing, he at least praised her work on the series in a recent Instagram post.

In Pascal's Instagram post, alongside a fan-made poster for "The Siege," he writes, "Pals, peril, and ... blue cookies. #Chapter12 of #TheMandalorian directed by the legendary @carlweathers Starring the fishy @mrsanz, the indomitable @ginajcarano & #MeMandoandChild. Art by @thebutcherbilly (f***ing bad *** btw)."

The word "indomitable" here means "impossible to subdue or defeat." While one could argue that the word accurately describes the character of Cara Dune as a gun-toting former shock trooper, it could also be seen as describing Carano herself. The comment is vague, so either way, we can't know Pascal's intentions behind the word choice, or how he really feels about the comments Carano has made over social media: However, if you go to Pascal's Twitter, then you'll see his pronouns (he/him) right there in his name — the same pronouns in support of the transgender community that Carano mocked, beforehand — so perhaps that says everything you need to know. 

It's also worth noting that during the aforementioned incident, Carano at one point backed down from the pronoun controversy because, according to her, Pascal himself had explained to her why putting pronouns in bios was a valuable way to show solidarity with trans individuals. Carano's tweets since then, though, appear to have gone in the opposite direction.   

As of right now (and unless we hear otherwise), Cara Dune will remain on The Mandalorian, which has new episodes airing on Disney+ every Friday for the next few weeks.