How ‘The Mandalorian’ Responds to Cara Dune’s Departure

There are a lot of questions going into season 3 of The Mandalorian. Will we see more of Luke Skywalker afterwards Grogu left him in The Book of Boba Fett? Can Din Djarin find his way back into Mandalorian society after all took his helmet off at the end of season 2? And, of course, what will Disney and creator Jon Favreau do about Cara Dune?

We know the answer to that last question in the first episode of the third season of The Mandalorian, which hit Disney Plus on Wednesday. Cara Dune, the rebel mercenary played by Gina Carano in the first two seasons of the show, is still alive but not an active participant in Mando’s story.

When Din Djarin arrived in Navarro in the season premiere, he was met by High Magistrate Greef Karga, aka Carl Weathers. Karga then explained that Navarro needs a new marshal. A confused Mando asks what happened to Marshal Dune. “After they brought Moff Gideon, he was recruited into the Special Forces.”

Gideon was the big bad guy in season 2, whom Mando defeated with the help of Dune at the end of the season. So in other words, Cara Dune is still a badass in the Star Wars universe, but we don’t see any of her exploits.

Carano was dropped by Lucasfilm in February after she, in a quickly deleted Instagram Story, equated being a Republican to being Jewish during the Holocaust. “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her in the future,” a Lucasfilm spokesman said at the time. “His social media posts that denigrate people based on their cultural and religious identities are disgusting and unacceptable.”

Carano has since signed on with the Daily Wire, a conservative media company founded by political pundit Ben Shapiro. In 2022 he starred in the Western flick Terror on the Prairie, released only to Daily Wire subscribers. Speaking to Shapiro in an interview last year, he he was allegedly bullied by Disney and Lucasfilm.