The Mandalorian season 3 doesn’t completely write off Gina Carano’s Cara Dune
The Mandalorian season 3 is here after a two-year hiatus, and in episode 1, creator Jon Favreau devotes most of the run time to reintroducing the players and setting up new stakes. Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin is back with Grogu after picking him up from Babysitter Luke Skywalker (a whole thing that happened in The Book of Boba Fett), and in the premiere, the duo returns to Navarro to find their ol’ chum Greef Karga in charge and revitalizing the planet. But after a brief run-in with space pirates, Greef admits: He could really use another gun by his side. His marshal, Cara Dune, found new work — and actor Gina Carano, who played Cara in the first two seasons of the show, was shown the door out of the Star Wars universe.
What happened to Marshal Dune? Greef explains to Din halfway through the episode: “After she brought in Moff Gideon” — Giancarlo Esposito’s Empire-affiliated, Darksaber-swinging baddie from season 2 — “she was recruited by special forces.”
Star Wars fans might hear that line and think The Mandalorian team might be teeing her up for a role on the previously announced Lucasfilm Disney Plus project Rangers of the New Republic, but in reality, the premiere’s Poochie moment is the last beat of an ugly and unfortunate parting of ways between Disney and Carano.
During the 2020 run of The Mandalorian season 2, Carano caused a stir after refusing to include her personal pronouns in her Twitter bio — a practice commonly seen as a way to support trans and nonbinary people — saying the pressure to do so led to harassment. While the MMA fighter turned actor later apologized, saying that Pascal “helped [her] understand why people were putting them in their bios,” her social and political views would cause greater
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