Along withThe Book of Boba FettandAhsoka, a third spinoff announced forThe MandalorianwasStar Wars: Rangers of the New Republic, a series expected to follow the character of Cara Dune, played inThe Mandalorianby Gina Carano before she was fired for a series of controversial tweets. With the ending of her contract also being confirmed to prevent her from appearing in any other Disney projects in the future, it was announced subsequently that the character would not be recast. While there has been no mention given to the proposed spinoff since May this year, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has finally spoken about it and revealed that there were never even any scripts written for the series.
WhenRangers of the New Republicwas announced in December 2020, the series was to have been produced by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni and would eventually lead to a crossover withThe Mandalorianand its other spinoffs. By May this year, it was announced that the series was no longer in development, which did not come as a surprise to anyone considering the events of the previous months, and during her interview in the new edition ofEmpire, Kennedy gave a very short and definite confirmation of the series’ fate, saying, “We’d never written any scripts or anything on that.”
Some fans had hoped that when the series was said to be not in active development, that could simply have meant the show was on the backburner while they worked out what to do with the property, but there seems to be no way back forRangers of the New Republic, considering it now seems that it was never really there in the first place. Of course there are many projects announced for big franchises that for one reason or another fall by the wayside, so the loss of this one is nothing new to the world ofStar Wars, and considering how far along the shows it would be connected to are, startingRangers of the New Republicfrom scratch now would probably impact too much on bringing all of the storylines together without having to delay the other series.
There has never been an official reason for the series being abandoned, just like it was never confirmed that Cara Dune would have been the central character, but considering the timeline of events from the series announcement, to Carano’s departure from the franchise and the cancelation of the project, it is fairly certain that the series would have givenGina Carano’s characterher own spinoff and therefore could not continue without her.
Despite this news, there are plenty of other projects to keepStar Warsfans happy, including the long-awaitedObi-Wan Kenobishow coming next year andThe AcolyteandLandoalso in development. In contrast, it was recently revealed that the plannedRogue Squadronmovie has beenindefinitely delayeddue to a disagreement between the studio and director Patty Jenkins, who left the project telling them to “get in touch” when internal issues had been resolved.
