Ever since the release of Fallen Order, Cal Kestis has become one of my favorite, if not, my favorite Star Wars character. The latest Survivor game further propels this for me.
Our review for Survivor came out at a massive 9.8 and was only let down due to the overwhelming platforming nature of the game. You can read our review here.
Rumors have been circulating for quite some time now that Cameron Monaghan has signed a deal with Disney to make a live-action TV series. Unfortunately, as of now, these are just rumors but we hope they’re true.
Let’s start with how this could work. Cameron himself voices Cal. He also does all of the motion capture for the character as well. This means when you see Cal in cutscenes, Cameron himself likely did most, if not, all of the motions you see.
Second, to that, Cameron is an established live-action actor. He’s been proven in Gotham and Shameless. He’s also only 29 years old so there is plenty of scope for this to be introduced.
We also have other actors who model their characters in the same way. Cere is modeled and voiced by Debra Wilson. Merrin is modeled and voiced by Tina Ivlev. You can see for yourself;
So, the framework is there in regard to the actors. Perfect. So, the next question is why. Why should they make a live-action show?
Let’s discuss this.
I’ve already mentioned that I love Cal. One of the reasons for this is his ethics, his code as a Jedi per se. In the films, we always see the Jedi follow the code down to a T and never really shift from the old ways, despite Yoda admitting in the books that they made several mistakes in the way the Order was run.
In Survivor (spoilers incoming) we see Cal and Merrin effectively get together. It’s beautiful and it’s actually been well received by many fans. After all, the Jedi Order is finished. Cal knows this and he knows he’s only likely the only Jedi left at this stage. It’s the fact he prefers to be happy whilst doing what he can to defeat the Empire. I always believed the no-relationship side of the Jedi Order was a bit ridiculous anyway.
When you look at the difference between Fallen Order and Survivor, the layers of confidence from Cal are crazy. This shows further when the little frog, Turgle is about to be killed by the Bedlam Raiders. Cal would usually shy away from this confrontation but in Survivor he steps in with ease and has no worries about brandishing his saber to protect the innocent/weak. Weirdly, this was the scene that truly cemented that Cal is my favorite character.
I would also love to see his saber in live-action. It’s unique because it can be made to change into so many different versions. Single blade, double blade, duel-wield, and crossguard. I’d love to see this in live-action. More so Cal changes his stance depending on the situation he’s facing.
This is it though, Cal is already established. The same way Ahsoka is to an extent. It helps that people genuinely like the character. All they need to do is ensure it follows on from the games. I do believe though that they will wait for the third installment before moving forward with any series as Respawn and EA will likely want to hold the character. This does make sure it gives them the freedom to create the stories they want to create and not have to come into someone else’s work (unless they bring the same writers on board) and go from there. It could ultimately affect the third game if it’s not done right.
Star Wars has one of the toughest fanbases in the world to impress. They’ve done this so well with Cal. They’ve basically made him Disney’s version of Kyle Katarn. They’ve made him likable with a huge character development which always helps when you transition from a game to a series/movie.
If you were to ask me when to set the series, I’d set it AFTER the game. I don’t want a prequel from Survivor, I want to see what happens moving forward. We’ve got the Battle Scars book for that.
They need to run with this whilst the actors are all on board with the project to make it easy to transition into that. There is a lot of potential and a lot of stories they can tell.
