Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Will Introduce New Planets, Characters

The recently-announced Star War Jedi: Fallen Order will be introducing several new planets and characters.

Fans of the Star Wars multimedia franchise have long complained about the property’s treatment in the hands of Electronic Arts. Granted exclusive rights to the license for video game development back in 2013, the publisher has only managed to squeeze out two titles in five years: the mediocre Star Wars: Battlefront reboot and its much-maligned successor.

Opinions may change, however, with the November 2019 release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Slightly tortured name aside, the game seems to be a breath of fresh air for the sci-fi franchise and is set to introduce a few new characters and planets to the decades-old lore.

While this isn’t anything particularly revolutionary — comics, novels, and other Star Wars-related releases introduce new locations and creatures on a constant basis — it will be a first for Electronic Arts. Its previous endeavor in the Battlefront franchise simply served as homages to what was seen in the movies. These titles played it safe and introduced very little original material to the canon, save perhaps for Iden Versio, the protagonist of Battlefront II’s middling campaign mode.

First and foremost, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will introduce Cal Kestis, a Force-sensitive inhabitant of a previously unmentioned mid-Rim planet occupied by the newly-ordained Empire. Played by Cameron Monaghan, the actor behind Gotham’s version of The Joker, he’ll be an entirely new edition to the series’ lore. The details are still a little fuzzy, but he may have been a Jedi Padawan at one time and has now been forced into hiding following Emperor Palpetine’s Order 66. The game’s marketing drives home the idea that Cal needs to lay low and conceal his power from those looking to eradicate the galaxy of Light-side users.

The world from which Kestis hails will also be new to the Star Wars canon. Bracca, a celestial body seemingly battered by the elements, is an Imperial shipyard used to scrap and recycle the Empire’s dysfunctional starships. In the trailer, Cal is seen on the job helping to slice the wing off of some sort of Imperial cruiser before an accident forces him to reveal his true powers.

Another new character, at this point simply known as Cere, will play an instrumental role in Cal’s understanding of an adaptation to the world around him. As the Obi-Wan Kenobi to his Luke Skywalker, she is an experienced Force practitioner who somehow managed to escape the Empire’s Jedi purge. Since she is an entirely new character, not much aside from that is known at the moment.

The game’s main antagonist seems to be a shadowy figure known as the Second Sister. Originally introduced in a 2018 issue of Disney’s new Darth Vader comic book saga, she’s a member of the enigmatic Inquisitors, a group of Jedi hunters eager to aid the Emperor in his quest to cleanse the galaxy of the Jedi. Though not an entirely new character, she’s guaranteed to be much more fleshed out in Jedi: Fallen Order than she was in her brief comic book appearance, and it will be interesting to see what this new villain could bring to the table.

Jedi: Fallen Order seems to be a definite step in the right direction for Electronic Arts, a company that previously mishandled the Star Wars license to the point that rumors suggested that it could have been revoked. It’s best to err on the side of caution, though these new story elements suggest that this new game could be the sort of narrative experience players haven’t had since KOTOR.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will be coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC in November, 2019.