Ben Shapiro Goes Trolling in Hollywood The conservative gadfly’s new film studio is a bid to monetize the battle against cancel culture. PHOTOGRAPH BY AMY LOMBARD FOR THE NEW REPUBLIC The war over cancel culture is reaching new levels of absurdity. Earlier this year, Lucasfilm dropped the actress Gina Carano from its Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian after she likened conservatives—who she said are “hated” for their political views—to Jews who had died in the Holocaust. Her comments generated the usual cycle of backlash: #FireGinaCarano trended on Twitter, Lucasfilm responded by canning her, and her agent dropped her as well. This time, though, the story didn’t end there. Carano found salvation in the form of Ben Shapiro, the impish right-wing media personality best known for coining the phrase “facts don’t care about your feelings.” A few days after Carano was fired, Shapiro agreed to finance her next movie under the auspices of his new entertainment venture, a wing of his news website, The Daily Wire.