Lucasfilm has apparently requested that Cara Dune be removed from a piece of The Mandalorian promotional artwork and replaced with Ahsoka Tano.
Gina Carano’s kickass character was a huge hit with Star Wars lovers after the first season of the Disney Plus series, but reaction to her soured after Carano started causing widespread controversy on social media. There’s been speculation that this could lead to a reduced role for the actress in the next run and while that’s far from confirmed, this recent incident does add fuel to the flames.
Last month, artist Mark Raats shared a gorgeous piece of art to tie in with The Mandalorian season 2 coming to a close. As you can see below, it features Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu, flanked by their allies – Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) – and enemies – Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and Morgan Elsbeth (Dianna Lee Inosanto).
More recently, Raats posted a follow-up tweet revealing that he had to change his original image after the studio requested that he replace Cara Dune with Ahsoka. “After the overwhelmingly successful debut of @rosariodawson’s character, Lucasfilm asked me to replace Cara Dune with Ahsoka Tano,” Raats wrote, along with sharing a video detailing the painstaking process of painting over Carano and inserting Dawson.
Though Raats says the reason was because of Ahsoka’s headline-grabbing debut, fans are speculating that the request was actually made in the face of the #FireGinaCarano social media campaign that’s been ongoing for months now, and is reignited every time the actress shares another divisive opinion. In the face of all this scrutiny, Raats ended up deleting his follow-up tweet.
Dawson’s certainly got a bright future ahead of her in the Star Wars saga, though, what with her own Ahsoka spinoff series being on the way. Gina Carano’s continued involvement is less certain, however, but the actress has suggested she’s not going anywhere.
The Mandalorian is expected to return for its third run in early 2022.