What Happened to Cara Dune In 'The Mandalorian?' How Season 3 Handled Gina Carano's Firing

Find out if Cara Dune was killed off of 'The Mandalorian' Season 3 following her "abhorrent" social media posts.

The Mandalorian Season 3 answered a burning question in the premiere: What happened to Cara Dune?

The one-time fan-favorite character, played by actress and former MMA fighter Gina Carano, was a major part of the Disney+ series until Carano was let go, leading fans to scratch their heads as to Cara Dune's onscreen fate.

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What happened to Cara Dune in The Mandalorian Season 3?

It was quickly explained in The Mandalorian Season 3 premiere that Cara Dune was still alive. Din Djarin (international treasure Pedro Pascal) visits Nevarro, where he's greeted by High Magistrate Greef Karga (Carl Weathers). Greef Karga explains that because Cara Dune so courageously helped capture Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), she was recruited to the special forces.

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What episodes of The Mandalorian is Cara Dune in?

Don't worry, Cara Dune hasn't been retconned from the series. You can still see her in the following episodes if you do a re-watch:

• The Mandalorian Season 1, Episode 4: "Chapter 4: Sanctuary"

• The Mandalorian Season 1, Episode 7: "Chapter 7: The Reckoning"

• The Mandalorian Season 1, Episode 8: "Chapter 8: Redemption"

• The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 4: "Chapter 12: The Siege"

• The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 6: "Chapter 14: The Tragedy"

• The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 7: "Chapter 15: The Believer"

• The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 8: "Chapter 16: The Rescue"

Related: When Does The Mandalorian Take Place? Where the Series Is In the Star Wars Timeline

Are they recasting Cara Dune?

Cara Dune will not be recast as of this time, but that may change depending on where the Star Wars universe goes in the future.

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Who will play Cara Dune now?

So far, no one will play Cara Dune anymore.

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Why did they get rid of Cara Dune?

In short: Because Gina Carano was so far down the far-right rabbit hole that she fumbled the bag, big time.

Cara Dune was written off of The Mandalorian because Gina Carano couldn't resist, despite allegedly receiving prior warnings, comparing mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany. Seriously.

In an Instagram Story she posted in early 2021, she wrote, “Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children. Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”

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(To be clear: It's different for many reasons, one being that political views are subject to change while genealogical factors are not, another being that spreading misinformation about a communicable disease is not a religious belief, another being that COVID-19 is a potentially deadly and highly contagious airborne virus while being Jewish is a spiritual choice. There are plenty of other differences, but we'll just start there.)

Prior to that post, Carano had also mocked transgender people and pronouns, even though co-star Pedro Pascal had a conversation with her about the trans community and has a trans sister.

Lucasfilm said in a statement after her wildly problematic posts, “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.”

Carano was also dropped by her publicist and her agent. She said in a statement at the time, “I am sending out a direct message of hope to everyone living in fear of cancellation by the totalitarian mob. I have only just begun using my voice which is now freer than ever before, and I hope it inspires others to do the same.”

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Is Gina Carano still with Disney?

Disney and Lucasfilm parted ways with Gina Carano following her bigoted and ill-informed posts.

In an interview with Ben Shapiro, Carano admitted that Disney had been monitoring her social media before the anti-Semitic-anti-vax-anti-mask mess of a post went up. “[Disney] accidentally sent me an email, which was very enlightening, so I knew. I knew they were paying attention. I know there were some people who went to bat for me but I know that they didn’t win out at the end,” she recalled, adding, “[Disney executives were] all over me and they’ve been watching me like a hawk, and I’m watching people on the same production and they can say everything they want, and that’s where I had a problem. I had a problem because I wasn’t going along with the narrative.”

Of course, it's worth noting that no one else on the production had, at least publicly, made statements so offensive and so dangerous as Carano did.

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What will happen to the character Cara Dune?

Right now, Cara Dune is written off the series, but she's still alive. It's possible at some point that the role may be recast, but it doesn't seem to be in cards anytime soon.

“Cara was a big part and continues as a character to be part of the world,” The Mandalorian director Rick Famuyiwa told Deadline. “It had to be addressed in the creative, and [creator/showrunner 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.”

Executive producer Dave Filoni added, “It’s a big galaxy, and we have many characters in it—many characters are fighting for their screen time. 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.”

“Now Season 3 is mainly dealing with Mandalorians and the Mandalorian saga, the Mandalorian tale," Filoni added. "[There are] 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.”

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Was Cara Dune killed off The Mandalorian?

Cara Dune is still alive on the series, but likely won't be seen again anytime soon—and definitely not played by Gina Carano.

Next, check out the 101 best Star Wars quotes of all time.