'Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order' Developer Reveals Why Cal Kestis Is So Young

Yesterday, developer Respawn Entertainment and publisher EA finally unveiled Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order to the world, a new single-player third-person action-adventure Star Wars game coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC later this year. And with the game's debut trailer, we finally met protagonist, Cal Kestis, who is being portrayed by Gotham and Shameless' Cameron Monaghan, and who narrowly escaped the purfe of Order 66 following the events of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

One of the first things you notice about Cal is how young the Jedi looks, and that's because he's young. And according to director on the game Stig Asmussen and Lucasfilm's director of franchise content and strategy, Steve Blank, Cal is so young because Respawn wanted to leave room for him to learn and grow.

"Cal came organically out of a story we were crafting," said Steve Blank when asked how the character came about by Game Informer. "What you were alluding to is the dark times, after Episode III, when the Jedi have fallen and are predominantly eliminated. We thought that was a really interesting space to start a story. What do the Jedi look like in that space? What does it mean to have lived through this purge, and how do you deal with that in this new era? Cal came out of that. We have a padawan that hasn't been fully trained, but now sort of is living in this space. The layers of personality and specifics of story all of that came when Cameron [Monaghan] got added and found his voice. It was a process to settle on the specificity of that character."

Asmussen, added:

"Even before any of that, the team was thinking more about [the game] mechanically. There was something that really drove us to have a younger character. We didn't want it to be what you often times see in games. I'm not going to say what it is, but you know what I mean. We like the idea of him being younger because he can learn and grow. That works well mechanically because you can build up your abilities over the course of the game. Even stripping it back from something that isn't even Star Wars made us think about the framework that we need for this character just for a video game."

It appears when Asmussen says that Respawn wanted to leave room for Cal to "learn and grow," he's talking about over the course of the game. But it also sounds like the team is potentially is thinking about Cal not as just the protagonist of one game, but a series.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is poised to released on November 15 via the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. At the moment of publishing, there's been no word of a Nintendo Switch port.

For more news, media, and information on the highly-anticipated game -- including its first story and gameplay details -- be sure to peep all of our previous coverage of the title by clicking right here. And as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think or hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know there. What do you think of Cal?

-----

Have you subscribed to ComicBook Nation, the official Podcast of ComicBook.com yet? Check it out by clicking here or listen below.

In this latest episode, we cover the possible new Hawkeye series coming to Disney +, argue if Batman casting fatigue is setting in, we grade WWE Wrestlemania, and so much more! Make sure to subscribe now and never miss an episode!