Recently, The Mandalorian returned for its newest season. The third outing of Pedro Pascal as America’s space dad Din Djarin reunites the titular character with his cute alien son and one of his longtime allies is absent doing new secret work. Of course, in our world, we know Gina Carano was fired from playing Cara Dune, and, some wonder if the hero could return within a cartoon.
For those unaware of the controversy, Carano began on The Mandalorian’s first season and shortly after its premiere began to make her conservative political views known on social media. This culminated in a shared Instagram story in 2021 where the now 40-year-old equated the treatment of those who have her political views in Hollywood as the same as what those in the Holocaust experienced during World War II. Hashtags calling for her dismissal began to trend on Twitter, and, within days Lucasfilm acted. They said her sentiment was “unacceptable” and a Rangers of the New Republic show which reportedly would have starred her as Dune alongside Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze was 86’d before any scripts were even written.
Since then, Carano has appeared in little of note while continuing to voice conspiracy theories about current events. Clone Wars‘ Dave Filoni, an executive producer on The Mandalorian and other Star Wars projects, recently broke his silence on the matter. When asked by Deadline Hollywood in February if fans have ever requested Dune return, he said the character is great and hinted he gets a lot of different requests in various Star Wars projects. Ultimately, the biggest issue is finding room for those who do shine brightest, which may give hope to her return.
“It’s a great galaxy. The hardest thing is finding time and space for everyone out there. George [Lucas] used to talk about when he was making the prequels, he had so many great characters, and they all wanted screen time. How do you do it when your job is to tell the story of Anakin Skywalker? I relate to that. The Mandalorian in the title is about the Mandalorian and his people.”
What will happen remains to be seen, but there is precedent for characters who were unceremoniously canned in live action getting their opportunities to succeed in animation instead. It has happened with Darth Maul. Who is to say whether Dune is in the dustbin forever or will end up getting a proper conclusion like the red and black-skinned Sith lord. All anyone can do is wait and see and right now, it seems like Lucasfilm is taking characters who began in animation and making them live action a priority.