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Credit: ABCThroughout The Mandalorian Season 2, former women’s MMA and Muay Thai fighter Gina Carano — who made a name for herself in the Star Wars universe as an ex-shock trooper and current New Republic Marshal Cara Dune — became something of a pop culture sensation due to her controversial Tweets about political and social justice issues.
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Carano was officially fired from the Star Wars franchise in February 2021 after hashtags like #FireGinaCarano, #WeLoveCaraDune, and #IStandWithGinaCarano alternately trended on social media for months. As a result of the actress’s dismissal from the Star Wars universe, her Mandalorian spinoff series, Rangers of the New Republic, was taken out of active development.
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At the time, Lucasfilm was adamant that Carano would not be recast — this tracked with reports that Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau had created the part specifically for the actress and had even gone to bat behind the scenes to keep her as a part of the Star Wars franchise.
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Recently, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that parts of the scrapped Rangers of the New Republic story are likely to make their way into other Star Wars series — including The Mandalorian Season 3 and Ahsoka — within Favreau and Dave Filoni’s “Mando-verse.”
Since Cara Dune was set to be the main character in the show, it would serve to reason that she will still have to play some type of role in bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu’s (AKA “Baby Yoda”) adventures moving forward.
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Now, a new report indicates that this could happen via recasting the character. At the time of Carano’s firing, fans called for several celebrities, including Lucy Lawless, to take on the role, but Lucasfilm has never confirmed whether other actresses were seriously considered — or if any specific names are on the table now.
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Carano has been vocal about her distaste for The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm, Ltd., publicly stating that she was “bullied” by the powers-that-be and sharing that her new project — a Western film — with Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire will “take down the Death Star”.
Despite this, there have also been rumors that the actress will return for The Mandalorian Season 4, thanks to support from Favreau, Pascal, Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan Kryze), Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shand), Giancarlo Esposito (Moff Gideon), and Carl Weathers (Greef Karga).
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However, if Cara Dune is not ultimately recast, it is unknown if Carano would consider making a Star Wars return, given the statements she has made about Disney.
At this time, the daughter of former NFL quarterback Glenn Carano is involved in an upcoming Hunter Biden biopic.