Star Wars fans demand live-action Cal Kestis series
It's hard to believe that when the final credits rolled on Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith in 2005, we genuinely thought this was the end of the galaxy far, far away. Since Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012, the Star Wars name has gone from strength to strength, with no sign of it slowing down.
Alongside the new trilogy, we've seen a deluge of video games, live-action and animated shows landing on Disney+, and the annual Star Wars Celebration adding more projects to a groaning roadmap more populated than Coruscant. Still, we're waiting for our live-action Cal Kestis series.
Star Wars demand a live-action Cal Kestis series
Up there with Starkiller, Iden Versio, and Darth Revan, Cal Kestis has become one of the most popular video game creations to grace the franchise. Added to this, Shameless and Gotham's Cameron Monaghan's performance has helped add another layer to the Order 66 runaway.
Following the release of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor in 2023, gamers and general Star Wars fans alike are asking when (not if) Monaghan will make the leap into live-action. The complicated timeline puts Cal's arc between the original trilogy and the prequels, which we've seen popularised by The Bad Batch and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Over on Twitter, someone joked that Monaghan and Janina Zione Gavankar would be perfect castings for live-action versions of Cal Kestis and Iden Versio. Although the joke went over some people's heads, it sparked up the conversation about why we still haven't seen Cal Force jump into one of the many Disney+ shows.
One Cal champion cheered, "If Cameron doesn't play Cal in live-action i will riot," while another added, "Cam actually would crush a live-action role and I honestly would love to see it he was amazing on Gotham as Joker and the dude has mad talent better to take the shot while he's young."
Not everyone was so quick, as someone concluded, "As much as I want to see our boy in live action, I think it's safe to wait till the third game is released, since it's planned to be a trilogy. Then bring him to live action. But I desperately want to see him in the 'Mandoverse' by the time Filoni's movie comes around."
Cal Kestis is a perfect fit for Star Wars
Click to enlargeEven if Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy isn't willing to make the gamble on a full-blown Cal Kestis story, he could easily fit into any number of other stories. Back when Ewan McGregor donned his hermit outfit for the aforementioned Obi-Wan Kenobi, fans noted the timeline perfectly aligned with Jedi: Survivor.
Sadly, Cal was nowhere to be seen in Kenobi and there's no news on a mythical Season 2. Others want to jump ahead and have Cal pop up in The Mandalorian, but that's one hell of a time jump of around 20 years. It's also a fine balance between bringing Cal into the mainline stories without simply retelling the games.
You might remember a Book of Boba Fett Easter egg had a BD droid looking a lot like our BD-1, leading to wild theories Cal is dead by the time we get to the events of the Mandoverse. Ultimately, with Respawn teasing a Jedi trilogy, we'll have to see where Cal's story goes next and whether he can slot into the wider cosmos of Star Wars.
