Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and its upcoming sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, tells the story of Cal Kestis, a character who has quickly become a fan favorite among large sections of the Star Wars community. However, he is also one of the most fiercely debated characters, as his role as an active Jedi during the years of the Jedi Purge makes many fans wonder if he even really fits into the canon timeline.
Star Wars fans are obsessed with canon, arguably more so than fans of any other franchise. Much of that can be attributed to the Star Wars Expanded Universe, a wide array of books, comics, and video games, most of which were pushed into an alternate timeline called "Legends" after Disney bought the franchise in 2014. This is occasionally made even more confusing by the fact that some Legends characters, such as Thrawn, have returned and reclaimed their canon status, while others seem destined to stay non-canon as other characters begin to replace their roles. For these reasons, fans have plenty of questions about Cal Kestis' canon status, so here are some of the answers.
Who Is Cal Kestis in Jedi: Fallen Order & Survivor?
Originally a Padawan of the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars, Cal Kestis managed to survive Order 66 thanks to his Master, Jaro Tapal, who sacrificed his own life to help Cal escape to the planet Bracca. Cal went into hiding on Bracca for five years until an accident at his job forced Cal to use the Force to save the life of his friend, Prauf -- an act which was immediately noticed by the Empire.
Cal, now hunted by the Empire, was forced to flee the planet, though he was rescued by a former member of the Jedi Order named Cere Junda and her pilot friend, Greez Dritus. Together, Cal, Cere, Greez, and eventually, a Nightsister named Merrin, traveled around to several planets on a ship called The Mantis, searching for a hidden Holocron that listed the names of Force-sensitive children. They believed that they would be the key to rebuilding the Jedi Order. However, after a lengthy journey that included Cal defeating two Inquisitors as well as successfully escaping from an encounter with Darth Vader himself, Cal realized that the Holocron was too dangerous and destroyed it.
Apart from the events of the book Jedi: Battle Scars, in which Cal and the crew have an encounter with another Inquisitor named the Fifth Brother sometime after the events of Jedi: Fallen Order, nothing else is known about Cal until players catch up with him in Jedi: Survivor, set five years after its predecessor. It seems that in this upcoming game, Cal might find himself working more closely with the growing Rebel Alliance, and in turn, with the events that lead into the movies Rogue One and A New Hope.
Is Cal Kestis Canon?
The short answer is yes. Any Star Wars media that has been officially produced by Disney studios, starting from April 25th, 2014, is considered canon to the series' timeline. This includes the animated show, The Clone Wars, which started well before 2014, but was brought into official canon status by being revived by Disney for a seventh and final season in 2020.
Furthermore, a look at the series timeline shows that there is plenty of room for Cal to exist without intruding upon Luke Skywalker's story. Jedi: Fallen Order takes place in 14 BBY, roughly five years after the end of the Clone Wars. To put that into perspective, Solo: A Star Wars Story, the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, Star Wars Rebels, and Andor, the four major Star Wars projects that cover the timeline between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, all take place between 13 and 5 BBY.
Add to that the fact that the Second and Ninth Sisters of the Inquisitors were never mentioned in any of those other projects, which makes perfect sense as they were defeated by Cal earlier on the timeline. Also, Fortress Inquisitorius, a location that first appeared in Jedi: Fallen Order, made a second appearance in the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, providing more credibility to the canon status of the game. Jedi: Survivor will also take place in the center of other events set during that time, so fans may get even more canon connections soon.
What Is Cal Kestis' Canon Lightsaber Color?
The official canon color of Cal Kestis' lightsaber is perhaps one of the most complicated questions about him. This is due to the fact that Jedi: Fallen Order has a lightsaber customization feature that allows the player to make Cal's lightsaber a variety of different colors, from the standard blue and green to the more unusual orange and purple.
However, setting aside all the customization options, by the end of Jedi: Fallen Order, Cal canonically wielded a blue double-bladed lightsaber, with one half built from the frame of Master Jaro Tapal's lightsaber and the other half built from the frame of Cere Junda's. The frames that Cal used for the lightsaber are pretty straightforward, as Cere passed along her old lightsaber to Cal for him to use in constructing his new lightsaber is a major story beat.
However, the lightsaber's color can clearly be determined to be blue both by the fact that it was originally blue during the tutorial level before the player had access to customization, and by the fact that all the current marketing and trailers for Jedi: Survivor have clearly shown Cal's lightsaber to be blue. More than that, though, an official, canon guidebook called Star Wars: The Lightsaber Collection officially confirmed in 2020 that Cal's lightsaber is canonically blue.