Mandalorian season 3 doesn’t completely ax Gina Carano’s Cara Dune

MandalorianSeason 3 returns after two years. Episode 1 of season 3 features Jon Favreau, creator, reintroducing and setting up stakes. Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin is back with Grogu after picking him up from Babysitter Luke Skywalker (a whole thing that happened in Boba Fett’s Book), and in the premiere, the duo returns to Navarro to find their ol’ chum Greef Karga in charge and revitalizing the planet. After a short encounter with space pirates Greef says that he could use another gun. 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.

Was Marshal Dune killed? 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 fan might be able to hear the line and consider it a compliment. MandalorianTeam might offer her a position on 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.

2020 will be the year of 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 turbulence in the weeks ahead. Carano, who reshared an Instagram Story post in February 2021 (since removed) that compared her protests over her beliefs with how Jews were treated during the Holocaust. The post received a lot of backlash, indicating that the comparison was antisemitic. In the midst of all this, hashtag #FireGinaCarano quickly became popular on Twitter. Lucasfilm was forced to address her concerns about Star Wars’ future.

“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” a Lucasfilm spokesperson said in a statement at the time. “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

Lucasfilm’s low-key offloading of Carano was met with its own culture-war fury, and in the months to come, pariah status would turn her into a viable star in a different sector of show business. The actress accompanied conservative media company The Daily Wire in 2021. They planned to harness her controversial star power for a Western. Prairie terror. She boarded also My son Hunter, a factually dubious chronicling of President Biden’s son, whose documented drug-related incidents made him fodder for conservative news outlets. Prairie terrorThe Daily Wire published the movie (with a theater run in Russia) on June 20, 2022. My Son Hunter Breitbart News in September awarded a limited theatrical production to Carano. Carano is attached at the moment White Knuckle, a serial-killer thriller that’s been in development since 2021. Not quite Star Wars.

Only one thing Mandalorian season 3 premiere did It is notMarshal Dune was killed. Cara can still be found somewhere, busting skulls for the cause of right. But for the foreseeable future, Lucasfilm doesn’t need Carano to keep her spirit alive in the Star Wars universe.