Actor Gina Carano Sues Lucasfilm and Disney over her Firing from ‘The Mandalorian’ 

This Oct. 19, 2019, file photo shows Gina Carano at the Disney Plus launch event promoting "The Mandalorian" at the London West Hollywood hotel in West Hollywood, Calif. (AP)
This Oct. 19, 2019, file photo shows Gina Carano at the Disney Plus launch event promoting "The Mandalorian" at the London West Hollywood hotel in West Hollywood, Calif. (AP)
TT

Actor Gina Carano Sues Lucasfilm and Disney over her Firing from ‘The Mandalorian’ 

This Oct. 19, 2019, file photo shows Gina Carano at the Disney Plus launch event promoting "The Mandalorian" at the London West Hollywood hotel in West Hollywood, Calif. (AP)
This Oct. 19, 2019, file photo shows Gina Carano at the Disney Plus launch event promoting "The Mandalorian" at the London West Hollywood hotel in West Hollywood, Calif. (AP)

Actor Gina Carano on Tuesday sued Lucasfilm and its parent The Walt Disney Co. over her 2021 firing from “The Mandalorian,” saying she was let go for expressing right-wing views on social media.

The lawsuit Carano filed with help from X, formerly Twitter, in federal court in California alleges her wrongful termination from the “Star Wars” galaxy Disney+ streaming series after two seasons over a post likening the treatment of American conservatives to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.

“A short time ago in a galaxy not so far away, Defendants made it clear that only one orthodoxy in thought, speech, or action was acceptable in their empire, and that those who dared to question or failed to fully comply would not be tolerated,” the lawsuit opens. “Carano was terminated from her role as swiftly as her character’s peaceful home planet of Alderaan had been destroyed by the Death Star.”

The lawsuit alleges she was fired because she “dared voice her own opinions” against an “online bully mob who demanded her compliance with their extreme progressive ideology.”

Disney and Lucasfilm have not filed a response to the lawsuit, and representatives did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

A Lucasfilm statement at the time of her firing said “her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

Carano is seeking damages to be determined at trial and a court order that she be recast on the show.

The “Mandalorian,” starring Pedro Pascal, has aired for three seasons and is now being turned into a feature film. Several interconnected series also air on Disney+.

The lawsuit says Lucasfilm also hurt her future work prospects by making “maliciously false” statements about her.

Carano, a former mixed martial artists who played the recurring character Cara Dune on the bounty hunter tale “The Mandarlorian,” deleted the post but it was widely shared online and spurred a trending #FireGinaCarano hashtag.

Carano had previously been criticized for social media posts that mocked mask wearing during the pandemic and made false allegations of voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election.

Carano said on social media Tuesday that X had helped fund the lawsuit. X owner Elon Musk shared her post, adding that anyone else who felt they had been wronged by the company should “let us know if you would like to join the lawsuit against Disney.”



UK Blues Legend John Mayall Dead at 90 

English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)
English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)
TT

UK Blues Legend John Mayall Dead at 90 

English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)
English blues singer John Mayall performs with his band The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Monday, July 7, 2008. (AP)

John Mayall, the British blues pioneer whose 1960s music collective the Bluesbreakers helped usher in a fertile period of rock and brought guitarists like Eric Clapton to prominence, has died at 90, his family said Tuesday.

Mayall, a singer and multi-instrumentalist who was dubbed "the godfather of British blues," and whose open-door arrangement saw some of the greats in the genre hone their craft with him and his band, "passed away peacefully in his California home" on Monday, according to a statement posted on his Facebook page.

It did not state a cause of death.

"Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world's greatest road warriors," it said. "John Mayall gave us 90 years of tireless efforts to educate, inspire and entertain."

Mayall's influence on 1960s rock and beyond is enormous. Members of the Bluesbreakers eventually went on to join or form groups including Cream, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones and many more.

At age 30, Mayall moved to London from northern England in 1963. Sensing revolution in the air, he gave up his profession as a graphic designer to embrace a career in blues, the musical style born in Black America.

He teamed up with a series of young guitarists including Clapton, Peter Green, later of Fleetwood Mac, and Mick Taylor who helped form the Rolling Stones.

In the Bluesbreakers' debut album in 1966, "Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton," John Mayall enthralled music aficionados with a melding of soulful rock and gutsy, guitar-driven American blues featuring covers of tunes by Robert Johnson, Otis Rush and Ray Charles.

The blues music he was playing in British venues was "a novelty for white England," he told AFP in 1997.

That album was a hit, catapulting Clapton to stardom and bringing a wave of popularity to a more raw and personal blues music.

Mayall moved to California in 1968 and toured America extensively in 1972.

He recorded a number of landmark albums in the 1960s including "Crusade," "A Hard Road," and "Blues From Laurel Canyon." Dozens more followed in the 1970s and up to his latest, "The Sun Is Shining Down," in 2022.

Mayall was awarded an OBE, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in 2005.