Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy confirms that the Star Wars: Rangers of the New Republic series never even had any scripts written. Announced in December of 2020, Rangers of the New Republic was to serve as a spinoff of The Mandalorian, with many assuming it would follow the adventures of Cara Dune (Gina Carano). According to Kennedy, the series would be executive produced by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau and would eventually converge and culminate with a large crossover between The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka.
Only several months after the series was announced, however, Gina Carano was let go from her contract with Lucasfilm for her controversial social media posts comparing the political situation in the U.S. to that of Nazi Germany. It was also confirmed that Carano was not featured in any forthcoming Disney projects, and the character of Dune would not be recast. Since Carano's firing, Lucasfilm has been radio silent on the status of Rangers of the New Republic, with the only official word coming in May, claiming that the show was not in active development.
In a new interview with Empire (as per ComicBook), Kennedy finally addressed the status of Rangers of the New Republic and seemingly confirmed the show is well and truly dead in the water. Of the series, Kennedy says, quite simply:
"We'd never written any scripts or anything on that."
While it was announced in May that the series was not in active development, it could have still been on the backburner and something that Lucasfilm and Disney were planning to revisit. Now, with Kennedy's comments, Rangers of the New Republic is almost certainly canceled. Scripts for series in development go through many rounds of notes long before the shows ever go to camera; scripts for the Obi-Wan series were being reworked for months before the show actually began production. This means the timeline of the planned culmination of The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and Boba Fett would undoubtedly be thrown off even if Rangers of the New Republic scripts started being worked on immediately.
Although there was never any official word that Carano's Dune was to be the central character in Rangers of the New Republic, the timeline in terms of her firing and the new revelation that scripts for the show were never completed lends further credence to the notion that Carano is one of the main reasons the show was canceled. It's entirely possible that there were other factors that led to work on the series hitting a wall, but considering The Mandalorian, Boba Fett, and Ahsoka are now all confirmed to be in various stages of development, it certainly seems likely that Carano is the main reason. Regardless of why Rangers of the New Republic isn't moving forward though, fans will still have plenty of Star Wars content to consume in the months ahead with The Book of Boba Fett scheduled to premiere December 29th.
Source: Empire (via ComicBook)