Board Thread:False Info and Speculative Discussion/@comment-26828324-20150730184926/@comment-6383956-20150808175633

I think, perhaps, when the writers initially went to create Malia they were like "well, now that we've lost Cora we definitely need to add some more estrogen back into this cast" and in that sense -- and only that sense -- Malia might be a replacement for Cora.

But plotwise.... absolutely not. Cora was a clearly filler, who was added at the last minute. Her backstory was never explained and it was a pretty glaring hole to have nobody question. Not even her personality traits were super-developed. Lots of sass, that's mainly it. Why would they have replaced her at all?