Exclusive: Gina Carano Cara Dune Role Up For Recasting
Gina Carano is being replaced as Cara Dune, as Lucasfilm opens up to recasting the character.
Update: It does not appear that Gina Carano’s Cara Dune character is being recast within the Star Wars franchise.
Lucasfilm is open to the possibility of replacing Gina Carano as the Star Wars character Cara Dune. According to our trusted and proven sources, the part vacated by the former Mandalorian star is up for grabs and will likely be recast with a similarly physically imposing actress. Considering that Lucasfilm’s parent company Disney had extensive plans to spin off Gina Carano and Cara Dune into the leads of a Star Wars series titled Rangers of the New Republic, it is not all that surprising that there would be some investment in continuing to utilize the character.
What is surprising, however, is that a spokesperson for the Walt Disney Company had already previously stated that Gina Carano’s part as Cara Dune would not be recast and the character essentially retired. However, Disney and Lucasfilm are nothing if not willing to continue to mine existing IP as long as possible, so it makes sense they could only hold out for so long.
Gina Carano first appeared as Cara Dune in the fourth episode (“Chapter 4: The Sanctuary”) of the first season of The Mandalorian, first fighting and then teaming up with Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin to defend a village in a Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven-style plot. The character was introduced as a highly trained former Rebel shock trooper from Alderaan who has turned to mercenary work after the fall of the Empire.
The character was an immediate fan favorite, with audiences and critics both praising Gina Carano’s physical presence and on-screen combat abilities and Cara Dune’s complex backstory. Jon Favreau created the character specifically with Gina Carano in mind to play Cara Dune, wanting to develop a female role in Star Wars that would play differently from Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia. The character would recur numerous times throughout The Mandalorian, essentially becoming a regular supporting character in the series, and was heavily promoted as a new star of the franchise.
However, after a series of controversial statements via social media and interviews, Gina Carano was fired from the role of Cara Dune and the announced Rangers of the New Republic series was scrapped, apparently very early in pre-production. Among other controversial statements, Gina Carano shared a post comparing political criticism to the treatment of Jews in the Holocaust, mocked the use of protective coverings during the Covid-19 pandemic, and repeatedly expressed her belief in disproven theories of voter fraud during the 2020 United States Presidential election.
Since then, it has seemed that both Gina Carano and Cara Dune were being de facto removed from the Star Wars universe. Given that Lucasfilm could not even let Palpatine stay dead when it needed a big bad for The Rise of Skywalker, having a new person play Cara Dune was probably inevitable. It will be interesting to see whether this means that the Rangers of the New Republic series will also be revived, or if Dune will reappear in the many other Star Wars series being released on Disney+. For now, we shall have to just wait and see.
