'It Was Absolutely Ridiculous': Gina Carano Reflects On Coming Aboard Fast And Furious 6 Right After Making Her Feature Film Debut (2024)

Long before she was known for playing Cara Dune in the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, one of the best Disney+ TV shows, Gina Carano made her first big splash in the realm of tentpole franchises with 2013’s Fast & Furious 6. Playing Riley Hicks, an ally-turned-enemy of Dominic Toretto and his crew, came just two years after the MMA fighter-turned-actress made her feature film debut in Haywire. However, Carano had contrasting experiences between the productions, calling the transition between the two movies “absolutely ridiculous.”

During a THR profile delving into the background behind the lawsuit she’s has filed against Disney over being fired from The Mandalorian, Carano recalled how she got her start in the acting business, first explaining how director Steven Soderbergh selected star in Haywire, where she played a black ops agent named Mallory Kane and co-starred with Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor and Bill Paxton. She then went over what it was like transitioning from that movie to Fast & Furious 6, saying:

Gina Carano had a decently-sized role in Fast & Furious 6, as Riley Hicks was originally presented as the DSS agent partnered with Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs, but it was later revealed that she was in cahoots with the main antagonist, Luke Evans’ Owen Shaw. But as far as the actress’ time on set, it sounds like it was difficult for her to get used to the different vibe in the air compared to what she’d gotten used to on Haywire. It’s understandable why she’d be taken aback by all the support the other starring actors were receiving, and meanwhile she’s left to fend for herself.

Still, Fast & Furious 6 did help push Carano’s acting career along. After appearing in the direct-to-video movies In the Blood, Heist and Extraction (no, not the Chris Hemsworth one), she was cast to play Angel Dust, the secondary antagonist in 2016’s Deadpool. Three years later, she was cast as Cara Dune in The Mandalorian, and as mentioned in the profile, she was being lined up to lead the Rangers of the New Republic spinoff. But after the controversy surrounding her various social media posts unfolded, Disney cut ties with her, and since then she’s appeared in Terror on the Prairie and My Son Hunter, which were respectively released by The Daily Wire and Breitbart News.

While it remains to be seen when Gina Carano will be seen on the big or small screens next, Fast & Furious 6 can currently be streamed with an Apple TV+ subscription. The next installment in the franchise, Fast 11, is slated for release on April 4, 2025, and the spinoff is also in development.