Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order director says a non-human hero would be cool but it could "alienate a lot of people"

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"At the time Rey was kind of the thing for Star Wars"

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order stars a new character named Cal Kestis, a former padawan who escaped the Empire's Jedi purge as seen near the end of Revenge of the Sith, but it could have followed someone else's story. Respawn Entertainment game director Stig Asmussen explained how the studio settled on the broader strokes of Cal's character in response to a fan's question in a Game Informer interview, which you can watch below.

The fan asked Asmussen if the team had ever considered making the protagonist an alien; in Star Wars, alien is used as an umbrella term for non-human sentient lifeforms that could range from Humans with Stuff on their Heads like Twi'leks (Jabba's dancers) and Zabraks (Darth Maul) all the way to fish people Mon Calamari (Admiral Ackbar). Asmussen's answer also revealed how the team's approach was influenced by the hero of the new Star Wars trilogy.

"Yes, we talked about doing an alien creature. We talked about different genders. We arrived at where we were because at the time Rey was kind of the thing for Star Wars, and so it made a lot more sense for us to have a male protagonist," Asmussen explained. "Ultimately we didn't go with an alien race because we felt like, no pun intended, that would alienate a lot of people. We wanted to make sure that there was a real human connection to the character we have in the game. That's the broader decision of why we did it, personally I think it would be really cool to have an alien protagonist."

I get what Asmussen's saying about Rey, though Luke being a guy didn't stop Kyle Katarn from becoming the new hero of Dark Forces and Jedi Knight, or Dash Rendar becoming the new hero of Shadow of the Empire, or Starkiller becoming the new hero of The Force Unleashed. I agree with his last point, though - I also think it would be really cool to have an alien protagonist. Asmussen confirmed earlier in the interview that you will play solely as Kestis in Fallen Order, but there's always DLC and sequels.

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Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Former GamesRadar+ News Writer

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.