Exclusive: Gina Carano Star Wars Role Up For Recasting
Now, we've learned from one of our trusted and proven inside sources that Lucasfilm is considering recasting Gina Carano's role for future Star Wars projects.
This article is more than 2 years old
Star Wars has a Gina Carano-sized hole and everyone wants to know what Lucasfilm is going to do about it. Early in 2021, the actress was officially fired. Her character, Cara Dune, was last seen in Chapter 16: The Rescue on The Mandalorian’s second season. Because Cara Dune was a side character, there’s room within the story to simply write around her. She was a loner. Perhaps someone in The Book of Boba Fett can simply mention that Cara Dune is off doing her own thing. However, she was a fan-favorite character. As Star Wars is developing even more new shows, and Cara Dune is already connected to characters like The Mandalorian, Moff Gideon, and Shennec, it’s going to be difficult for audiences to ignore her sudden absence. Now, we’ve learned from one of our trusted and proven inside sources that Lucasfilm is considering recasting Gina Carano’s role for future Star Wars projects.
This was always going to be a decision that would divide fans. Many people are still hoping Lucasfilm will decide to bring Gina Carano back. However, the company has appeared pretty final on their public decision to cut ties with the actress. Recasting an actor is always a controversial move though, especially when the character is particularly popular. Considering the long time frame of the Star Wars universe, Cara Dune had only gotten started. Ten years from now, audiences will likely have seen a dozen more Star Wars projects from series to movies. When considering the long term like that, will fans prefer having let go of Cara Dune entirely? Or will they have fallen in love with a new actress who has taken over the role? This is one of the questions Lucasfilm is facing when making this decision.
It wasn’t until the end of season one of The Mandalorian that the audience learned that Gina Carano’s character deeply hated the Empire because of the destruction of her home planet, Alderaan. That detail was used to develop her further in season two. There was a lot more room for Cara Dune to grow from there. She’s been established as a loner, and audiences were invested in seeing her develop relationships.
While it’s possible that ten years from now, Star Wars fans will largely have let this go, it’s also possible that it will still be brought up with bitterness. Recasting the actress could make the most sense. It’s likely that as they are developing stories for all of their future series, Star Wars writers are letting them know that there are spots where it would make the most sense for Cara Dune to appear. They may be realizing that’s going to keep happening.
Our source shared that Lucasfilm is considering recasting Gina Carano, but we didn’t confirm if they’re naming actresses at this point. Fan campaigns have tossed around names like Lucy Lawless, who is a bit older than Carano but has a similar look. She’s also played a tough character who knows how to fight as Xena the Warrior Princess, which could help win confidence with fans. However, it seems most likely that Lucasfilm will move forward with an unknown actress.
Will recasting Gina Carano put projects like Rangers of the New Republic back on the table? Will it mean making new Cara Dune action figures? Once Lucasfilm makes their decision, they’re going to experience a domino effect of marketing and story decisions ahead of them.
