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Lucy Lawless' Cara Dune Fancasting Might've Cost Her A Star Wars Role
Lucy Lawless reveals that fans' desires to see her play Cara Dune on The Mandalorian might've cost her a different Star Wars role. For the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, Gina Carano played former Rebel shocktrooper Cara Dune, one of the key allies of Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal). She was a fan favorite character and was even in contention to receive her own spin-off. However, following a string of offensive tweets, Lucasfilm fired Carano in February of this year. She will no longer appear on The Mandalorian or in any other Star Wars project.
As for Cara, many initially believed the character would simply be recast. The Mandalorian will return for season 3 and has led to the creation of numerous spin-offs, so it seemed likely that Lucasfilm would wish to keep her around. Fans took to social media to share their ideal picks for the role, with Lawless becoming one of the top "contenders." However, those hopes were later dashed when Lucasfilm instead decided to retire the character of Cara Dune.
Lawless is aware of those early unofficial fan campaigns, and while she realizes they came from a place of love, it might've cost her something. In a recent interview with Metro, Lawless admitted she had been in talks with Lucasfilm over a Star Wars role at the time. "Well to be honest with you, I was already in discussions about something on – it wasn’t The Mandalorian – something Star Wars-affiliated," she said. She believes her chances were then affected by the fan campaign. Lawless explained:
It might have hurt me in some way, because then they couldn’t hire me because it would seem to be pandering to… I’m just guessing here, I don’t know anything, but in some ways, it can be unhelpful, because if they pander to this fan group, then how are you going to pander to every other fan group, do you know what I mean?
Lawless then went on to say that she felt like the fan campaigns pushed her into a political position because she was then Carano's opposite. "I became political and I had nothing to do with the discussion," she said. Nevertheless, Lawless doesn't have any hard feelings about what may or may not have transpired over her potential Star Wars gig. "But that’s the way the world is and they meant it out of love, and I thank the fans for their fealty to me," she said. She also added that "it hasn’t given me any pain," and that she hasn't thought much about it since it happened.
One might see how an increased desire from fans to see Lawless play Cara Dune might've impacted her Star Wars chances. If she had been cast in another role, fans might've questioned why she couldn't play Cara Dune instead. Of course, as Lucasfilm is ignoring the character entirely, that might not have happened. Also, as Lawless pointed out, she's only guessing about what went down. There could've been other forces at play. Lawless isn't taking it too hard, though her thoughts do leave something for fans to consider in the future. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting an actor to play a certain character, but it might be smart to keep real world ramifications in mind when expressing it.
Rogue Squadron (2023)
Release Date: Dec 22, 2023
