How Old Is Cal Kestis in ‘Jedi: Fallen Order’?

While we often look at the Star Wars video games as part of the Legends portion of the lore, fans should understand that Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a canon character. As such, his entire life belongs to the canon Star Wars timeline, which also means that the events of Fallen Order are canon. Of course, we also learned in the game that Cal was just a young Padawan during Order 66. So, how old is Cal Kestis in Jedi: Fallen Order?

Cal Kestis was around 18 years old in Jedi: Fallen Order. That’s because he was just 13 years old during Order 66 when his master saved him from the clones ordered to kill him. Meanwhile, five years went by since the fall of the Jedi Order and the rise of the Empire. 

Compared to some of the Jedi that we’ve met in the storyline of Star Wars, Cal Kestis was actually pretty young, as most of the Jedi that fought in the Clone Wars were already mature adults. Of course, Cal was just a Padawan at the time of the events of Jedi: Fallen Order, and that explains why he was still quite young and was just in the middle of discovering himself.

Who Is Cal Kestis?

The entire canon lore of Star Wars extends beyond the movies. We’ve seen characters introduced into the Star Wars canon through books and television shows. However, it isn’t always the case that there are canon characters introduced through video games. One such character is Cal Kestis. So, who is Cal Kestis?

Introduced in the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order game, Cal Kestis is that video game’s main and only playable character. As the title of the game suggests, he is a Jedi who survived the events of the fall of the Jedi Order. And we all know that the Jedi Order fell when the clones massacred most of the Jedi during Order 66.

Cal was once the Padawan learner of the Jedi Master named Jaro Tapal, who served as a general for the Republic during the events of the Clone Wars. As such, Cal Kestis traveled alongside Jaro Tapal during the entirety of the war. However, when Order 66 happened at the end of the Clone Wars, Tapal and Kestis were out in space instead of in the Jedi Temple.

Kestis survived the events of Order 66 when he escaped the onslaught of the clones, thanks to his master. However, Cal lost Jaro in the process. Still, he was able to keep a memento of his fallen master because he carried his lightsaber after the events of Order 66.

After that, Cal spent years hiding out on a remote planet called Bracca while working as a rigger for a scrapping guild. During that time, the Empire was actively flushing out Jedi who survived Order 66. They did so by sending out the Inquisitorius, a group of Force-sensitive people trained in the dark by Darth Vader to hunt down Jedi. However, Cal could evade the Inquisitors for years by keeping his Force powers in check.

But when he had to use the Force during the start of Fallen Order, the Second Sister of the Inquisitors found him and started hunting him throughout the entire game. The fact that he could no longer hide who he was allowed Cal to realize that he had a greater role in life as he used his Jedi training to search for the missing Jedi Holocron that could point out the location of all of the Force-sensitive people in the galaxy. And he wanted to keep this away from the Inquisitors because he knew what Darth Vader would have done with this information if he were to get his hands on it. 

How Old Is Cal Kestis in Jedi: Fallen Order?

During the events of the flashback scenes involving Cal Kestis and Jaro Tapal, it was clear that the young Jedi Padawan was still not quite as mature as he is in the game. In fact, he was just 13 years old when Order 66 broke out, which means that he was younger than most Padawans at that time, considering that there were some Padawans already on the older side of their teen years before becoming Jedi Knights. So how old is Cal during the events of Jedi: Fallen Order?

The Fallen Order events occurred five years after Emperor Palpatine and the Sith took control of the galaxy. That would mean Cal Kestis should be around 18 during the game’s events. As such, Cal is still quite young for a Jedi and is still on his way to learning more about what it means to be a proper Jedi Knight, as we know that he never finished his training due to the events of Order 66.

Of course, we did see Cal maturing as an adult and becoming more of a true Jedi Knight during the game’s events. As such, the events of the first game served as an introduction to Cal Kestis and a way for us to see a young Padawan coming into his own to become a hero.

How Old Is Cal Kestis in Jedi: Survivor?

We know that Cal Kestis’ journey as a Jedi will continue in the upcoming Jedi: Survivor game (not yet released as of this writing). In that game, he is shown to be an older and more mature version of himself. So, how old is Cal Kestis in Jedi: Survivor?

The events of Survivor will take place on 9 BBY, meaning that ten years have passed since the events of Order 66, and five years have quickly gone by since the first game. That means Cal should be around 23 years old in Jedi: Survivor.

It is also worth noting that the events of Jedi: Survivor takes place around the same time as those of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Although Cal wasn’t in the Kenobi series, some easter eggs could connect the events of the two storylines, especially because it was shown in the Obi-Wan series that Force-sensitive people were running away from the Empire and the Inquisitors.