Is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Canon? Connections with Star Wars Universe
The world isn’t short on Star Wars games, but the best game in recent memory is Jedi: Fallen Order because of how it allows us to go back to the roots of what Star Wars is all about. However, we do know that the official canon of Star Wars has changed ever since Disney acquired the Star Wars franchise in 2012. All of the backs and games before 2012 were considered Legends and are no longer part of the official canon. So, is Jedi: Fallen Order canon?
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is canon and is part of the entire official continuity of Star Wars. It takes place five years after Order 66 and five years before the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. However, this original story used to be non-canon but eventually developed to become canon to the continuity.
After Disney acquired Star Wars, it has been strict with what is canon and what is part of Legends. Nevertheless, almost everything that has been released since the Disney acquisition is canon because all of the Star Wars games and shows have to go through Lucasfilm. And while we are yet to see Cal Kestis in any of the other Star Wars stories, we are sure that he is canon.
Is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Canon?
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to video games is that these are usually created by independent bodies that are able to craft their own story. In that regard, the challenge that comes with creating a Star Wars video game is that the development of the gameplay and the story should be kept within certain limits because this is a film franchise and not a video game franchise. This isn’t the same as creating a Final Fantasy game where the developers could create an original story that doesn’t have a lot of limits.
It is the fact that Star Wars games tend to operate within certain limits that have held the games back. We have seen a lot of great Star Wars games in the past, especially during the 2000s. However, Star Wars video games haven’t been the same since Disney acquired the entire franchise in 2012. That’s because only the Star Wars movies and Clone Wars were included in the official canon after Disney acquired the franchise.
All of the video games and books written about Star Wars before the Disney acquisition became non-canon and are now part of the Legends storyline of Star Wars. That is why, since then, most of the Star Wars games that were released were not narrative-based. But Star Wars Jedi: Fall Order changed that.
When Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was released in 2019, TIME called it the first great Star Wars game released in a decade. That’s because this is the first Star Wars game in a long time that’s narrative-based and tells a deep and intricate story that’s tied to the lore of Star Wars. Of course, it also follows a ragtag group of underdogs, and that is a story that fans have always loved about the Star Wars franchise.
The main character is Cal Kestis, a former Jedi Padawan that’s hiding from the Empire that has been sending out Inquisitors to hunt down former Jedi and Force-sensitive individuals. Throughout the game, you control Cal, who is on a mission to find a Holocron that contains the locations of all of the Force-sensitive individuals so that he can keep it safe from the Empire. With that said, is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order part of the official Star Wars canon?
It is a fact that Jedi: Fallen Order was developed with the idea that it should be consistent with the entire Star Wars canon that has already been established by the movies, series, and books that are all canon. But it didn’t start out as a canon game. It only became canon when Respawn, the studio that developed the game, was asked to create a canonical game about a Jedi.
Aaron Contreras was hired as the narrative lead for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order while working together with the developers of the game. So, while Lucasfilm and Disney were not the ones in charge of the development of the video game, Contreras acted as the bridge between Respawn and the Lucasfilm Story Group, which is basically a council that determines the boundaries and limits of certain Star Wars stories based on the already established canon.
