In the wake of Lucasfilm firing Gina Carano from The Mandalorian, I wrote about the two options that lie before them with Cara Dune: either recast her, or write her out of the show.
It turns out that there’s still a lack of clarity over that, even among Hollywood “insiders.” Recently The Hollywood Reporter ran a story about what happened with Carano leading up to her firing, and then the article said, “Insiders say Cara Dune wasn’t part of the Star Wars series next up, a Boba Fett spinoff, but expect that the character will be recast down the road, for both story and merchandising reasons.” But the article was soon updated to include word from a Lucasfilm source saying that the character is not expected to be recast.
That suggests to me that there’s a lot of questions still out there about how Lucasfilm will proceed with the character, but let me venture to say that a Lucasfilm source (versus just an “insider”) who seemingly gave that comment after the article was published (thus in response to it) might be taken as more credible here. But that’s just me!
And part of the reason I think that, admittedly, is because it makes the most sense for Lucasfilm, a studio that has been extremely hesitant to recast characters (aside from a significant timeline difference), going so far as to use CGI and other means to make the “original” actors appear. Plus, it just seems like the most simple and straightforward path, since Cara Dune wasn’t such an integral character that necessitates being recast, story-wise. So for all of these reasons mentioned, I think it’s more believable that Lucasfilm doesn’t currently have any plans to recast Cara Dune, but think it’s worth noting that it seems Hollywood doesn’t entirely know what will happen.
On a slightly different note, the story also included more details and information on what happened. A few details stand out:
- The report says that Carano’s agents were negotiating for a significant increase in pay for her to star in a spinoff series, which was set to be announced at the Disney Investor’s Day presentation. The report of a planned spinoff isn’t new news, as we’ve heard that quite a bit, but this report added the tidbit about the pay raise (which also isn’t surprising). However, the Lucasfilm source clarified that Carano wasn’t in negotiations for future work nor was she ever set to be a part of the Investor’s Day meeting.
- This isn’t a surprise, but the report says that Carano was repeatedly warned about her social media behavior. So no, this wasn’t a rash decision made spur of the moment by one post. This has been an ongoing situation for a while.
- This report mentions that the decision to fire Carano came from executives at Lucasfilm. Again, this was expected, but it’s reported here. One person noted, “She knew it was going to alarm people. Why would you put Favreau in that position?” So it sounds like this decision was not Jon Favreau’s but instead came from higher-ups at Lucasfilm. Do not read into that as them being at odds with Favreau, however, as I would be shocked if they weren’t in close communication and consultation with him. Rather, I take this to mean that this wasn’t an issue confined just to the showrunners but the studio executives themselves. That is, again, not a surprise, but still good to see reported more definitively.
Star Wars Thoughts 