Lucasfilm has announced that Gina Carano has been fired from the cast of The Mandalorian following a series of controversial social media posts.

The 38-year-old, who played fan favourite Cara Dune in the Star Wars spinoff, sparked fury on Tuesday when she shared an Instagram post that compared the stigma of being a conservative American to the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

The hashtag #FireGinaCarano quickly began trending on Twitter and in a statement on Wednesday, Lucasfilm confirmed that she had been let go.

"Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future," it said.

"Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable."

The news comes off the back of previous controversial tweets from Carano in which she appeared to mock mask-wearers and shared posts relating to unproven voter fraud at the 2020 US election.

Season three of the Disney+ show is currently in pre-production and not due to begin filming until later this year, meaning that producers have ample time to seamlessly remove Carano's character from the show.