The Mandalorian (probably) won't recast Cara Dune following Gina Carano's firing

Lucasfilm won't be recasting The Mandalorian role of Cara Dune following Gina Carano's firing — at least not right away. According to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter, the expanding Star Wars universe on Disney+ doesn't need to worry about Dune just yet, as she wasn't a part of the next series: The Book of Boba Fett. The spinoff, which boasts Robert Rodriguez as an executive producer alongside Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, is scheduled to shoot before Season 3 of The Mandalorian.

Nevertheless, the studio still needs to figure out a path forward for Dune, an ex-Rebel Alliance shock trooper from Alderaan who proves herself a valuable ally to the main show's titular bounty hunter known as Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal). Nothing is certain just yet, but THR offers somewhat conflicting views on the situation with "insiders" stating that Carano will be replaced down the line, while "a source at Lucasfilm says that a recasting is not expected."

The latter implies that the show will probably kill her off-screen, or simply write her character off to another part of the galaxy.

Carano was fired last week in the wake of a controversial Instagram post that made comparisons to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Plans for a Cara Dune spinoff were promptly scrapped, the actress was dropped by her talent agency, (UTA), and just yesterday, Hasbro confirmed that it would no longer be manufacturing action figures based on the character. Per THR, this was apparently a long time coming and the Instagram post was only the metaphorical straw that broke the bantha's back. Over the last year, Carano found herself under fire for controversial tweets about the pandemic and 2020 presidential election.

“I don’t know what people at Disney personally believe or don’t believe with regard to politics, but as a corporate entity, they want to stay as trouble-free as possible. And anything that’s going to offend the left is a problem," crisis PR rep Juda Engelmayer told the trade outlet. “I have clients who are making an extraordinary effort to post what the social left wants to see."

In addition to The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, Disney+ is developing several other live-action projects set within the galaxy far, far away, including shows like Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka. Prior to Carano parting ways with the Star Wars universe, it was expected that Dune, a newly-appointed marshal of the New Republic, would make an appearance in Rangers. Several of the live-action projects will eventually converge for a massive, Endgame-style crossover event.