It’s officially Mandalorian eve! There’s only one sleep left to go before the third season of the Disney+ Star Wars series hits our screens – so remember to leave a blue macaron out for Grogu tonight, and a bar of Beskar for Din Djarin himself. The new season brings with it all kind of questions: what Force powers has Grogu now unlocked after his training with Luke? Will Bo-Katan Kryze get her hands on that Darksaber at last? What awaits Din on his redemptive journey back to Mandalore? All that, and there’s a bigger question: what’s going to happen to Cara Dune?
The character was a recurring feature in The Mandalorian’s first and second season, played by Gina Carano – but in the intervening years she was let go by Disney due to an array of controversial comments in 2021. Per a Lucasfilm statement: “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.” Since then, it’s been unknown exactly how the show will handle her departure – and while that’ll likely be more directly addressed in the show itself, the showrunners of The Mandalorian have spoken on their approach to phasing out the character.
Speaking to Deadline, executive producer Rick Famuyiwa stated the character will remain alive in the Star Wars galaxy. “Cara was a big part and continues as a character to be part of the world,” he said. “It had to be addressed in the creative and [Jon Favreau] took the time to think about that. It was something that was discussed as we knew it was going to have impact on the show, but at the same time, what has been at the heart of the show are the two characters — Din Djarin and Grogu — so ultimately it felt like a servicing of that, and around the Mandalorians.”
And according to Dave Filoni, the series is simply moving in a direction that takes the story away from whatever Cara Dune is up to. “It’s a big galaxy and we have many characters in it — many characters are fighting for their screen time,” he says. “We’ll just have to see as the season unfolds what the adventures are, but it’s a great character, someone who was vital to Din Djarin’s beginnings; we’ll see if he has evolved beyond that.” He adds: “Now Season 3 is mainly dealing with Mandalorians and the Mandalorian saga, the Mandalorian tale,” Filoni added. “[There’s] different characters he’s met since Bo-Katan [who] take a lot more prominence, which makes sense where his arc is going, the story of him and Grogu specifically.”
There you have it, then. It won’t quite be a Poochie situation, with Cara Dune dying on the way to her home planet. Partly, of course, since Cara Dune’s home planet is Alderaan and… well, it already got blown to smithereens. (What do you mean, “Too soon!”?)