Video game fans rejoice! Star Wars Jedi protagonist Cal Kestis finally made his first-ever Star Wars TV debut on Disney+. After debuting in 2019's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, calls for Cameron Monaghan's video game Jedi have been near-constant. The actor/character has been teased to make the jump from the digital realm several times over the years (including getting a 2023 book set between the two Jedi video games), but nothing from those has come to fruition.
Fans finally got what they have been so craving, though, as Cal Kestis appeared in the newly released LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy: Pieces of the Past, alongside other franchise mainstays like Ahosoka, Anakin Skywalker, and Darth Maul.
Cal was hinted at in the marketing material for the new animated streaming series, but now fans can enjoy his appearance in all its glory.
He pops up in Pieces of the Past Episode 2, voiced by Monaghan, appearing in the interdimensional space prison known as Force Hold, to which series hero Sig Greebling and his Sith brother Darth Dev are transported by the villainous Solitus.
Cal is introduced alongside other characters like a parka-wearing Darth Maul and a giant-sized Ahsoka Tano, getting a moment all to himself where he talks directly to the camera and says, "Name's Cal Kestis. I was the only Jedi survivor in my galaxy:"
"Name's Cal Kestis. I was the only Jedi survivor in my galaxy. And then one day... Poof! It was all gone. Just like that. Game over, man."
Cal and the other new characters that Sig and Dev cross paths with in Force Hold are "left over pieces that don't fit" from (as Ahsoka puts it in the series) galaxies that are "remade," like the one the series' central pair of brothers call home.
The character can be seen several other times, as a member of Sig and Dev's heroic crew, but does not get much more to do, simply being along for the adventure more than anything else.
LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy: Pieces of the Past is now streaming on Disney+. The four-episode multiversal epic follows a Star Wars universe that has been ripped apart.
After the events of the first Rebuild the Galaxy season that saw young hero Sig Greebling mismatch various elements of the galaxy far, far away, Pieces of the Past follows the Force Builder as he is transported to the far reaches of the multiverse, where leftover pieces are sent.
What's Next For Cal Kestis in Star Wars?
Now that the dam is broken (even if it came in a non-canon LEGO Star Wars animated series), calls for more Cal Kestis will only grow more passionate from here.
It is assumed that Cameron Monaghan's video game Jedi will return for a third game in his Star Wars Jedi franchise. Based on the ending of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, that third game will seemingly conclude Cal's story as he grapples with a growing feeling of the dark side looming within.
Beyond that, the character's future remains unclear. Monaghan has said on several occasions that he would like to reprise his Star Wars role in live-action if possible. In August 2022, the series star posited, "Of course there's interest" in bringing the character to a live-action project.
He then followed this up in February 2023, adding that he would only do it if it "[means] something:"
Q: "Would you be interested in playing Cal Kestis in live-action?"
Monaghan: "It would have to be right. By that I mean, it has to continue the story or the character in some way. I don't want him to just kind of show up to stand around and be there. I want him to mean something and for there to be a significance for the character itself. So, it would have to make sense. But in the right context then, yeah, absolutely."
Of course, all this can only happen if Disney wants to look Cal's way for a potential return outside of the games. Some have wondered if fans could see the character appear in the upcoming Maul: Shadow Lord (a new animated series taking place during the height of the Empire's rule), or if an aged-up Cal could pop up in Ahsoka Season 2.
For now, though, the character's cameo appearance in Pieces of the Past will have to do.
