Respawn exec explains why Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order lead is a human male. But they had other options that should have been considered.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order features a Jedi padawan Cal as the star of the upcoming video game. You’ve seen his face before. Cameron Monaghan played Jerome in Gotham.
Now, he’s the star of Jedi: Fallen Order.
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Other than being a known actor, it seems reception has been lukewarm on the lackluster protagonist. It seems as though they considered other options, but decided to go the safe route.
In an interview with The Game Informer, game director Stig Asmussen discussed the reasoning for Cal.
First, they didn’t want an alien. Despite the fact that Star Wars takes place in a galaxy with a vast amount of species, humans still always take the lead. Asmussen said he wanted to have a “real human connection.”
"“Ultimately we didn’t go with an alien race because we felt like—no pun intended—that would alienate a lot of people.”"
There have been a number of non-human characters throughout the franchise that have been fan favorites including, the original alien himself Yoda. There’s also Chewbacca, Ahsoka, Hera, and Thrawn just to name a few more.
When it comes to picking the gender of the character, the reasoning seemed a bit off too. In fact, it left us scratching our head.
"“Because at the time Rey was kind of the thing for Star Wars, and so it made a lot more sense for us to have a male protagonist.”"
Of all the options, they could have picked to be the protagonist of Jedi: Fallen Order, this current pick feels “safe.” He doesn’t offend anyone, but he doesn’t really inspire either. He seems like a cookie cutter of characters we have seen before.
Having a “human” connection doesn’t necessarily mean a character needs to be human. If you want to go that route, it could be a humanoid character, which leaves you with Twi’leks or Togrutas or even Chiss.
The interview made it seem like they didn’t have many options because of one reason or another. But, in truth, there were so many choices the Jedi: Fallen Order developers could have gone with.
With how disappointed fans have been with Star Wars video games over the years, perhaps they wanted to go the safe route first before challenging any norms.
Star Wars: Jedi Fallen release on November 15. The game is available for pre-sale now.