Disney Has Had Enough – Gina Carino Out From The Mandalorian over Social Media Activity

Gina, Gina, Gina. I don’t know this person at all beyond her appearance in The Mandalorian. Didn’t see any of her MMA fights, haven’t seen her acting in any other roles. She’s just another supporting actor in a show I’ve been interested in. That’s it.

But if I did know her, my advice privately, offline, would have been to curtail posting inflammatory subject matter on her social media. After all, she posts stuff, then gets a negative reaction, and takes it down anyway. So what was the point of posting it to begin with, if you only take it down later?

These days an increasing number of businesses have lower tolerance for social media account activities that cause customers to rise up against them. It’s not just social media, though, it’s all online activity. Check your employee handbooks, friendly readers. It’s probably there. It seeks to limit what you say and do online, especially with social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Insta, but not only those.

Not our place to tell Gina Carano to talk about something less divisive, nor do we want to incite the online mob mentality, but we tried to look at the situation from a common sense perspective (see: Hey Star Wars Hardcore Fans, Stop Trying To Get People Fired For Being Ignorant on Social Media). That older post was one of the most popular in search engine traffic the past few days when news broke that Disney is no longer working with Gina Carano on The Mandalorian.

Despite the influx of new readers, nobody decided to leave any new comments. That could mean something or nothing, Just guessing that some agreed, some disagreed but most probably didn’t care that much (or didn’t think what she said was that bad — a reader left that exact comment, btw). It was a curiosity of a news story, perhaps follow some links and read for and against opinions and then move on.

If only Gina Carano understood better how transitory “influence” is online. You can say or do something inflammatory and gain short term eyeballs and interest, sure, but how many of these people will stick around and engage you longer term? Life will be lonely online if you seek this sort of attention, Gina. It will.

It doesn’t matter if the comments being made, the opinions being shared, are crazy, cool, wrong, right, etc. It only matters that somebody these companies do business with, employs and/or associates with, how it makes them look if they don’t do something to change this relationship.

If you thought Gina Carano was going to back down after Disney has thrown in the towel on working with her, you’d be wrong.

“I am sending out a direct message of hope to everyone living in fear of cancellation by the totalitarian mob,” Carano said. “I have only just begun using my voice which is now freer than ever before, and I hope it inspires others to do the same. They can’t cancel us if we don’t let them.”

Dana White weighs in on Gina Carano controversy: ‘Leave Gina alone’ – MMA Fighting

Lest we forget that Carano is a fighter by trade. Her original job was taking kicks and punches to the face. Acting is just one of many things she has done since she stepped out of the ring. It’s her way to keep on fighting.

Fighting online is something Carano is by no means afraid of doing.

Where now does The Mandalorian go with Cara Dune, the character? There could be recasting, which has been happening in movies and TV shows for many years. Long before we had social media, blogging — anything online.

This is no different. The characters, the media, the IP can and will continue. Gina Carano doesn’t have to play Cara Dune to still have a very viable Cara Dune in The Mandalorian.

Actors — regardless how much or little we like them in certain roles — are expendable. Sure, there will be fallout from Gina Carano fans, but the reality is corporations have an itchy trigger finger in 2021 for those they associate with and their online activity. Heck, some recruiting screening before employees are offered interviews, much less employment, involves googling online presence: good, bad, ugly, whatever. Not telling anybody what to say and do online, but keeping this in mind — especially if you’re looking for a new job — is wise.

Good luck to you, Gina Carano. Whatever you do next. I enjoyed your minor role in The Mandalorian. Honestly, I don’t care that much if the character reappears or not on the series. Do you?

Predictably, fallout from Disney’s move has angered Carano supporters. Some are organizing canceling Disney+ drives. No, we aren’t going to cancel Disney+, a service we keep mostly for our grandchildren, because Disney made a business decision not to associate with Gina Carano any more. That just seems silly. To me, anyway.

As the years go on, it’s too much drama around social media that drives my waning interest in even logging into these chat platforms, much less regularly using them. I think what the famous Van Halen drummer and his late guitarist brother said is worth considering (see; Alex Van Halen Reminds That Not Everybody Cares About Social Media).

I am more interested in season three of The Mandalorian. Will it be as good as the first two seasons? How will the new Boba Fett series tie-in?

Advertisement