Gina Carano Returns to MMA, Star Wars Future Unclear

0:00It's April 30th. Welcome in. This is Entertainment and Celebrity News, where pop culture meets AI. I'm Corey with the story. Gina Carano is stepping back into the MMA cage against Ronda Rousey on May 16th at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. While that's locked in, her Star Wars comeback feels more open than ever after a messy split from Lucasfilm. She played Cardoone in the Mandalorian back in 2019, but got fired in February 2021 over social media posts that stirred big. Backlash. The posts mocked pronouns, questioned COVID rules, and compared conservatives to Jews under Nazis, which Lucasfilm called unacceptable. Carano sued Disney for wrongful termination, backed by Elon Musk's cash, and they settled it in August 2025. Now, a Lucasfilm rep says they're eyeing future projects with her. She's already zoomed with Showboss' Dave Filoni and John Favreau calling it a chill catch-up to men fences. Filoni, now running Star Wars as Chief Creative Officer, and Favreau picked right up where

1:02they left off after two seasons together. No bad blood there, even through the drama. Carano's not in the upcoming Mandalorian and Grogu movie-hitting theaters, May 22, but she roots for it and calls Favreau a top storyteller. She hasn't talked to co-star Pedro Pascal since Carl Weathers died in February 2024, and she wishes ex-Lucasfilm president Kathleen, Kennedy the best. With the fandom split into extreme camps and years of cancel wars behind her, Carano's focusing on that rousey fight while leaving the galaxy far away, door cracked, just enough.