Movies

'The Mandalorian' Will Not Recast Gina Carano's Character With A New Actress

The Mandalorian Not Recasting Cara Dune
By Ethan Anderton/

It's been one week since Lucasfilm confirmed that Gina Carano would not be returning as Cara Dune in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian on Disney+. The studio opted not to renew Carano's contract for a new season of The Mandalorian after she shared an Instagram story comparing the current U.S. political climate to Nazi Germany, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back after a variety of controversial social media posts the actress had made over the past several months. But what does that mean for the character Cara Dune?

Last night, a story broke that Lucasfilm may be looking to recast Cara Dune sometime down the road, but Disney has since confirmed that the character will simply no longer be part of The Mandalorian or any other upcoming Star Wars projects.

The Hollywood Reporter first broke news about Cara Dune potentially being recast. The report cited "story and merchandising reasons" as the need to eventually recast the character. However, IndieWire has now confirmed with a Disney spokesperson that won't be the case. THR's story now says:

"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 presentation in question was Disney Investor Day, where the studio announced a plethora of Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, and various live-action and animated Disney projects. It has been reported that there was meant to be some kind of project involving Gina Carano's character Cara Dune, but the studio held off on the announcement since they were already unhappy with the actress's controversial social media activity. It was assumed that Cara Dune may be at the center of the Rangers of the New Republic series that was announced that day, but if that was the intention, that's not the case anymore. As for how they'll explain Cara Dune's absence in future seasons, we'll have to wait and see.

As if that wasn't enough of a stone cold send-off for Cara Dune, the Star Wars toy creators at Hasbro are also ceasing production of any further Cara Dune action figures. Julie Duffy, Hasbro SVP Global Communications, released a statement about the future of Cara Dune toys:

"We're thrilled to have the privilege of creating products featuring characters and stories from The Mandalorian for our fans. Hasbro has completed development of all season 1 and 2 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."

The end of production of Cara Dune action figures from Hasbro came to light when the online retailer Big Bad Toy Store alerted some of their customers that pre-orders for one of her figures would not be fulfilled.

Hasbro says they're "working with our retail partners to address existing orders," but it's not clear if that means they'll be fulfilling some of the orders that have already been made. Either way, it sounds like soon the only way to get your hands on Cara Dune will be to try your hand at the secondary market, and those are likely already high above retail price. But why bother?

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