The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 1 Sends Cara Dune Off Like Poochie From The Simpsons
This piece contains slight spoilers for the third season premiere of "The Mandalorian," "The Apostate."
"The Mandalorian" has had a major elephant in its metaphorical room for the past couple of years, and that isn't just the omnipresent threat of another deep-faked character appearing out of nowhere. Back in February of 2021, the future of Cara Dune, a stern and frankly badass soldier introduced in the show's first season was thrown into question when actress Gina Carano was publicly fired from the production.
This seemed to be a pretty major problem at the time since Dune was positioned to be a major recurring character for the rest of the show's storyline — she had a fun rapport with the now-disgraced Mandalorian Din (Pedro Pascal) and seemed to take an interest in that little rascal now known as Grogu. Sure, she was only seen briefly in the show's second season, but her final appearance certainly implied that she'll continue being available whenever Din and Grogu needed her.
However, as seen in the third season's premiere, that isn't going to be the case. According to the new (High) Magistrate of Navarro, Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), Dune is apparently just chilling out in the galaxy with Special Forces after taking Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) into custody. That's the end of that. She may not have died on her way back to her home planet of Alderaan, but with a send-off like that, she might as well have.
A fitting send-off
While the swiftness with which Dune is disposed of in "The Mandalorian" is pretty humiliating, it's not like it wasn't deserved in a karmic way. If you may recall, Carano wasn't just fired from "The Mandalorian" and other Lucasfilm productions for no reason. It wasn't a secret that the MMA fighter-turned-actress leaned conservatively in her politics, but things escalated when she reposted graphics seemingly comparing people unvaccinated against COVID-19 to Jewish victims of the Holocaust. What made things worse is that when called out by "Star Wars" fans, she doubled down instead of apologizing. This is in addition to previous endorsements of seemingly racist, transphobic, and conspiratorial beliefs. At least our dearly departed Poochie was written out of "The Itchy & Scratchy Show" due solely to negative feedback.
Needless to say, there was no coming back from that, and Lucasfilm was certainly in the right to write Dune out of the franchise the way it did. It doesn't matter if the character had an interesting set-up and tons of potential. When she is intrinsically linked to dare-we-say borderline fascism, there is no way the character can be salvaged, whether through recasting or off-screen media. It was ultimately better for everyone that Dune gets dumped in the Special Forces, never to be heard from again.
But hey, at least Carano isn't starring in Daily Wire movies that only make $13,000 at the international box office while her former co-star is headlining the biggest franchises currently around. Oh, wait.