Star Wars may have begun as a series of films, but it quickly evolved into a massive transmedia empire with new stories coming out on a variety of platforms, including novels, comic books, animated series, and video games. 2019 saw the release of Jedi: Fallen Order, a game featuring Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis as the protagonist, whose voice and likeness were provided by actor Cameron Monaghan.
In the game, Kestis is a survivor of Order 66 and chooses to go into hiding when the Galactic Empire begins to rise. Kestis soon becomes the target of two Inquisitors, however, and has to re-embrace his connection to the Force to survive and stand a chance of bringing the Jedi Order back. Along the way, Kestis befriends a nightsister and even faces the evil Darth Vader and somehow manages to survive to the very end of the game, prompting fans to wonder if a sequel to the game is a future possibility.
Whether or not Cal Kestis appears again in a sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order, the character has the potential to show up somewhere in a future Star Wars story. If that’s the case, what would Cal Kestis look like as he becomes an older and more seasoned Jedi Knight?
What Cameron Monaghan could look like as an older Cal Kestis
Digital artist Dalton Barrett created a piece of fan art that demonstrates actor Cameron Monaghan as an older Cal Kestis. In the image posted on Barrett’s Instagram, Kestis appears as a rugged older version of the character from Jedi: Fallen Order, including a beard and slightly longer hair.
The tone of the image is much more badass than the Kestis we saw in the game, and this makes a lot of sense, given the events the character already went through in the game. What else might happen to him?
Monaghan is a versatile actor, having previously played the very Joker-like characters of Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska in Fox’s pre-Batman police procedural show Gotham, as well as the character Ian Gallagher on Showtime’s Shameless. With an already impressive performance as Cal Kestis in Jedi: Fallen Order, it’s not hard to see Monaghan reprising the character in either live-action or CGI animation in a future Star Wars story.
Will Cameron Monaghan play an older Cal Kestis in Star Wars?
According to the May 2020 Electronic Arts quarterly financial conference call for investors, CEO Andrew Wilson called Jedi: Fallen Order “a first title in an entirely new franchise,” which seems to imply that we’ll see the game’s protagonist again. No further details have been provided, however, and we don’t know if the character will appear in any other Star Wars titles.
It’s certainly possible that Kestis will look similar to Dalton Barret’s vision for a more wizened version of the character, but for now, Kestis’s appearance in future Star Wars stories is mere speculation. Perhaps we’ll learn more about Kestis’s fate and Monaghan’s future with the character soon as Disney+ shows like Obi-Wan and Andor, as well as the recent animated series The Bad Batch, explore the same time period as Jedi: Fallen Order.
Would you like to see Cameron Monaghan return as an older Cal Kestis? Would you prefer it be in a Jedi: Fallen Order sequel or in a live-action project? Let us know in the comments below!