The Mandalorian won’t recast the role of Cara Dune

Last week, Disney fired The Mandalorian star Gina Carano after she made what the studio called “social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities.” That’s left fans wondering what will because of her character, ex-Rebel shock trooper Cara Dune, who was there with Din Djarin and the rest in the season 2 finale when Baby Yoda left with Luke Skywalker and Din learned he may now be the ruler of Mandalore. Will they recast her? Will they just write her out of the story?

Smart money’s on Option 2. Although The Hollywood Reporter initially wrote that the character would be recast for “story and merchandising reasons,” it since updated its story to read, “A Lucasfilm source says that the Cara Dune role on ‘The Mandalorian’ is not expected to be recast and that she was not part of the Dec. 10 presentation, nor was she engaged in negotiations for future work.”

The “Dec. 10 presentation” was Disney’s four-hour investment call, where it announced approximately 30,000 new Star Wars shows. No mention of Cara Dune was made at the event. We heard that Disney was planning a spin-off for her character — and given how many other series they have in the works, that’s not at all hard to believe — but clearly they’ve been rethinking that in light of Carano’s online activity.

Carano herself seemed to know the axe was going to fall. She talked to writer Bari Weiss about how Disney took her off the press trail for The Mandalorian season 2 after she refused to issue an apology, which Disney had written, after she mocked the use of pronoun sharing, something done in support of the transgender community. “That was heartbreaking, but I didn’t want to take away from the hard work of everyone who worked on the project, so I said ok,” Carano said. “That was the last time I was contacted about any type of public statement or apology from Lucasfilm. I found out through social media, like everyone else, that I had been fired.”

We’d heard that Disney was planning to fire Carano for a while, probably around then, and finally made the move after her latest online controversy, which involved comparing the criticism received by conservatives today to what the Jews faced in Nazi Germany. Other hits included mocking the practice of wearing masks during the pandemic and spreading the false narrative that the 2020 election had been rigged.

What will happen to Cara Dune now that Gina Carano has been fired from the Star Wars franchise?

Writing Cara Dune out of The Mandalorian doesn’t seem like it will be that hard. She wasn’t a hugely important character, although when you’re part of a franchise this big, any change has ripple effects. What instance, what are Disney and its partners supposed to do with all this Cara Dune merch they have now? The Star Wars empire runs on merchandise, and people have already put money into Cara Dune dolls, posters, calendars, Funko Pops, LEGO playsets, etc.

According to Io9, some will become collector’s items, with prices for Cara Dune merch on auction sites like eBay shooting up since the announcement. Meanwhile, companies like Hasbro will sell their current stock and just not make more. “We’re thrilled to have the privilege of creating products featuring characters and stories from The Mandalorian for our fans,” reads a statement from Hasbro SVP Global Communications Julie Duffy said. “Hasbro has completed development of all season one and two product featuring Cara Dune, and there are no current plans to create more. We are actively working with our retail partners to address existing orders.”

That said, it’s not clear if Disney and Lucasfilm are directing their licensors to do anything in particular about Cara Dune merch or if they’re all handing it by themselves. And there are other unknowns: for instance, was Cara going to be a part of any forthcoming Star Wars spin-off books or comics? Who’s in charge or changing direction on that stuff?

The Star Wars franchise is a huge machine, and even a minor change can gunk up the gears. And things are only getting more complex and interconnected. The next Star Wars show on the docket is The Book of Boba Fett. After that, we’ve got The Mandalorian season 3, a show about Ahsoka Tano, Rangers of the New Republic, an Obi-Wan Kenobi series starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen…there’s a lot on the way:

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels

h/t IndieWire