As one of 2023’s most anticipated titles, every aspect of EA and Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is going to be scrutised both prior to and post the launch of the game. Human nature sees that we often judge a book by its cover, and so, when the game had its first breakout appearance at Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards last week, fans were quick to observe the facial hair that had emerged on the game’s protagonist, Cal Kestis’ face, and then speculate on a number of things, why, and how long does this growth mean has passed since the conclusion of the predecessor, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
In a recent interview with EW, the face and voice of Cal Kestis, Cameron Monaghan addresses the growth in facial hair on the fleeing Jedi, and what it might represent for his tale.
Obviously, when you get older some very interesting changes happen to your body. So we sat down with the creative team. We had a little presentation. We brought the projector into the room and explained what might happen. They had a few questions, but ultimately we understood that hair grows in places you might not necessarily expect, and one of those places was Cal’s chin. It was important to have Cal’s internal journey reflected by his physical appearance. If you have a physical marker, it clues the audience in to what is going on internally. But also, we are able to explore multiple looks with Cal, and some of them are really cool.
With Star War Jedi: Survivor set five years after the conclusion of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a lot can transpire, and much of that can be represented on our faces, and this is clearly the case of Kestis as Monaghan alludes to. When you factor in Monaghan’s summary of the first game, it’s easy to see how this could happen. He sets the stage for Star War Jedi: Survivor by saying,
What’s important to know contextually is not just about Cal but about the world around him, which is that the Empire has grown stronger. There are very few footholds of Resistance left, and the situation is increasingly more desperate and dark. So we’re putting Cal into circumstances that are challenging to the point of even being hopeless. Trying to find that fight, and how you’re supposed to fight within a seemingly hopeless situation, is an interesting question we wanted to launch into immediately. I think most of the story speaks for itself, and even if you’re not familiar with the first game, you could easily jump into this one and catch up quickly.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will be launching on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on March 17, 2023.
