Star Wars loves a trilogy, and its most recent video game franchise will be no different. Most fans were previously aware that EA and Respawn were developing a third game in the popular Star Wars Jedi series. Given the enormous popularity of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in 2019 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor in 2023, how could they not? However, a recent announcement clarifies that this next game will conclude a trilogy and tell the tale of Cal Kestis.
Cal Kestis was a human with Force sensitivity who trained to become a Jedi Knight while the Galactic Empire was in power. Kestis lived in isolation on the planet Bracca for years as one of the few Jedi who escaped the purge that nearly destroyed the Jedi Order until an encounter with the Inquisitorius forced him to publicly oppose the Empire’s reign. Pursued around the cosmos by the Empire’s Jedi trackers, Kestis chose to revive the Jedi Order and reaffirmed his bond with the Force.
He’s the playable lead character in the Star Wars Jedi video game series produced by Respawn Entertainment. The character can also be found in other material related to the franchise, such as Sam Maggs’ novel Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars, which serves as a prequel to the two Star Wars Jedi video games. Through performance capture, actor and model Cameron Monaghan (Gotham) plays Cal.
The announcement was made this week during an EA firm investor relations day by Laura Miele, president of EA Entertainment and Technologies. “We have delivered some of the highest quality and best-selling Star Wars games of all-time, with over $5 billion in net bookings, Miele said, as quoted by VGC. “This impressive track record includes of course the Star Wars Jedi games, where over 40 million Star Wars fans have connected with Cal Kestis and his arc of becoming a powerful Jedi. Respawn is working hard to bring the final chapter of this thrilling story to players.”
After Survivor, Cal, Merrin, and Greez established themselves on the secluded planet Tanalorr, protected from the Empire. The group intends to assist in moving the Hidden Path, an organization dedicated to Imperial Resistance, to this planet. Thus, it is evident that the tale did not finish with that game, and many events still have the potential to occur until A New Hope is reached.
The director of the first two games, Stig Asmussen, quit Respawn in the previous year and founded a new studio. Before his departure, Asmussen stated that he always intended for the Star Wars Jedi series to consist of three games and that he aspired to create a third game.
Regarding the second game, Survivor, he told IGN then, “I always wanted to see this as a trilogy. How can we take Cal and the crew to new places beyond what we were doing in the first game?” Asmussen added, “We had a pretty decent idea of timeframe where we wanted Survivor to take place, what the stakes were going to be, what the tone of the game was going to be, what Cal was going to be up against, and how the crew was going to factor into that. And there’s ideas of what we could do beyond that as well.”
Because Survivor hasn’t been out, I hadn’t considered this, but Tanalorr’s use of Star Wars plot elements makes me think of Peredia. While it is never explicitly mentioned that Tanalorr is outside of the central Star Wars galaxy, each has this unreachable attribute. Peredia is the planet in another galaxy where Ahsoka and Sabine encounter Ezra and Thrawn in the Ahsoka show. I wonder whether there might be a relationship of any kind. We’ll have to wait and see.
The third game’s title and release window are unknown, although given the time between the first and second installments, 2027 seems like a reasonable guess. By the way, you should play Survivor and Fallen Order if you haven’t before. They are outstanding.
Are you looking forward to it? Do you want additional Cal games, or do you think the current three are sufficient? Let us know in the comments below.
[Via VGC]
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