Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

• 1. Introduction

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  Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order almost starred a smuggler. Lucasfilm considered the Jedi a "sacred" part of its franchise and pushed developer Respawn Entertainment toward a shooter about a smuggler or bounty hunter. Game director Stig Asmussen refused. His insistence on a Jedi protagonist shaped every creative decision that followed. What drove him to fight that battle? How does a studio known for Titanfall end up recording orchestral music at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra? How does a Mongolian folk metal band find its way into a galaxy far, far away? And what does it take to build a hero who must earn his power back from nothing?

• 2. Asmussen's Vision

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  Stig Asmussen had directed God of War III before he joined Respawn Entertainment in 2014. He led the studio's second development team while the first worked on the Titanfall games. The project that became Fallen Order started as something entirely unrelated to Star Wars. Electronic Arts, which held an exclusive license from Lucasfilm to develop new Star Wars games, saw potential in Respawn's original concept. EA felt it could work set in the Star Wars universe and brought the two parties together. Lucasfilm remained closely involved throughout, regularly checking in with Asmussen and Respawn to verify the game's fidelity to the Star Wars setting. Visually, the team drew from Rogue One, Solo, and Star Wars Rebels, the animated series set in the same era as the game. For combat and level design, the team turned to Metroid Prime, Dark Souls, and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The writing team Aaron Contreras led included Chris Avellone and several writers experienced with the Star Wars setting from their work on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Rebels.

• 3. A Story Between Trilogies

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  Aaron Contreras and his writing team set out to explore a gap that other Star Wars media had largely passed over. The period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope had seen the Republic become an Empire and the Jedi nearly wiped out. Level designer Jeff Magers described the era in striking terms. He called it "a perfect place for a video game hero, as a flickering candle of light in a very dark place." The writing team framed the whole story as a David and Goliath contest, a "classic battle of good versus evil." Trauma was named as one of the game's central themes from the start. Survival was another. Most centrally of all, the team built around "letting go." The main characters were written to trust the Force and let destiny work itself out rather than controlling every outcome the way the Empire does through oppression. The story's central object shifted several times during development. A lost starship was one candidate; a collection of Inquisitor's secret prisons was another. The team eventually settled on a Jedi Holocron holding a list of Force-sensitive children. Cal's original name was going to be "Boone," a choice that came from the Western genre the team used for character inspiration. The creative team initially envisioned him as "untrusting" and "laconic." They chose a human male protagonist to be more relatable than an alien, and male specifically to differentiate Cal from Rey, the female lead in the sequel trilogy. To give the game a deeper historical foundation, Asmussen and Contreras invented the Zeffo civilization and deliberately modelled it on Ancient Egypt. The Stinger Mantis, the crew's ship, was designed by Star Wars artist Doug Chiang. Its captain, Greez Dritus, belongs to a new alien species created specifically for the game. According to Asmussen, Greez's personality drew on "John C. Reilly and Mr. Furley from Three's Company."

• 4. BD-1 and the Blade

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  BD-1's final design took two years to achieve. The droid was initially codenamed "bird dog," reflecting its visual resemblance to a bird and the personality of a dog. An early version looked much like BB-8 from the sequel trilogy. The team had to redesign it after seeing the trailer for The Force Awakens. At one point, the team discussed giving BD-1 spoken dialogue. They ultimately worked with sound designer Ben Burtt to create its language of beeps instead. Asmussen compared the evolving friendship between Cal and BD-1 to that between Charlie Brown and his animal companions Snoopy and Woodstock. A still-earlier concept had Cal building BD-1 from salvaged parts, with the droid serving as his backpack. Both ideas were abandoned. Respawn gave BD-1 a pair of large eyes that could scan objects and project holographic maps of each planet. An initial design included a flying bolster. The team settled on a bipedal frame, turning BD-1 into a walking exploration companion. Purge Troopers, one of the game's recurring enemy types, were designed in collaboration with Marvel Comics. They had appeared first in the comic series Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, but Fallen Order marked their debut as active combatants. The team described the game's combat as "thoughtful" and "methodical." Jedi warriors, in their view, prioritized "precision and efficiency" rather than raw power. The team deliberately avoided adding a fast travel system, believing players would search more thoroughly for shortcuts when they could not skip through a level. Lucasfilm and Respawn agreed the game would not depict human dismemberment, noting that such moments had been rare in the Star Wars films themselves.

• 5. Scoring a Dark Galaxy

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  Gordy Haab came to Fallen Order having already scored Star Wars: The Old Republic and Star Wars: Battlefront. His co-composer Stephen Barton had worked with Respawn before on Titanfall and had also contributed to Uncharted and Apex Legends. The pair recorded the score at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Choir of London. Audio director Nick Laviers described the music as designed to evoke the original film trilogy. He said it needed to feel simultaneously "futuristic" and carry a "1970s, warm and familiar technology vibe." Haab called the overall score "dark," with some passages approaching what he termed "gothic horror." Composing Cal's personal theme proved especially difficult; the team did not want the music to signal where his journey would end. Haab's solution was to avoid listening to established Star Wars music while writing. He wanted to bring something new that still felt native to the same universe. The full soundtrack album was released on the 21st of August, 2020, and runs over three hours. It was produced by Barton, Haab, Laviers, Alan Meyerson, and Steve Schnur, Electronic Arts' President of Music. Separately, Mongolian folk metal band The Hu wrote and recorded a song called "Sugaan Essena" that featured prominently in the game. The lyrics were first written in Mongolian and then translated into a fictional Star Wars language. At the 18th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards, the score won eight categories, including Audio of the Year, Music of the Year, and Best Original Choral Composition for "Cordova's Theme."

• 6. Proof There Was an Audience

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  Metacritic recorded "generally favorable" reviews from critics when the game launched in November 2019. Reviewers praised it for being a self-contained single-player Star Wars story, a format other Star Wars games had rarely attempted. Critics also noted the game had successfully combined elements from several distinct genres. Andrew Reiner, writing for Game Informer, called exploration the game's "most dynamic and entertaining quality." He praised the relationship between Cal and BD-1, likening the droid to a "friendly lapdog." Phil Hornshaw at GameSpot felt the story only began to excel once it explored the deepening friendships between Cal and the supporting cast. Ben Tyrer at GamesRadar praised the game's locations as "intriguing" and compared its puzzles favorably to Tomb Raider. Brad Shoemaker at Giant Bomb was critical of the absent fast travel option, calling exploration a "chore" during the game's early hours. Most critics found the combat demanding but rewarding. Hornshaw and Tom Senior both drew comparisons to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Tyrer called the game "demanding" but not "punishing," and praised the difficulty settings for allowing players to adjust the experience. Technical problems at launch drew widespread criticism. Respawn had considered a delay but chose to release during the holiday season. In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version sold 26,761 units in its first week, finishing fifth in the weekly chart. In the United Kingdom, it placed second in its opening week, behind only Pokemon Sword and Shield. PlayStation 4 copies accounted for 66 percent of UK sales, with Xbox One taking the remaining 34 percent. That made it the fourth most successful physical game launch in the UK that year. In the United States, it ranked second in both November and December 2019, behind only the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot. With just two months of sales, it still placed sixth in US game sales for the full year. It was already Respawn's most profitable premium title to date. Electronic Arts confirmed the game had the fastest-selling digital launch of any Star Wars title within its first two weeks on sale. The game sold over 8 million units by the end of January 2020, exceeding EA's expectations. Sales passed 10 million by the end of March 2020. By June 2021, over 20 million players had tried the game. The release also marked EA's return to Steam, eight years after the publisher had shifted exclusively to its own Origin platform. At the 23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the game won Adventure Game of the Year. Its performance, alongside Marvel's Spider-Man, prompted Disney to encourage game developers toward more original projects built on its properties.

• 7. A World Beyond the Game

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  In September 2019, before the game had even launched, Marvel Comics published a prequel comic series called Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - Dark Temple. Written by Matthew Rosenberg and illustrated by Paolo Villanelli, it follows Cere and her master Eno Cordova as they investigate the planet Ontotho. By December 2019, Respawn had added a BD-1-themed outfit to its battle royale game Apex Legends. Hasbro produced three Star Wars: The Black Series figures for the game. The selection covered Cal Kestis alongside BD-1, the Second Sister, and the Purge Stormtrooper. Funko adapted the same selection into Pop! figures. In 2020, a fan poll decided which character's lightsaber hilt would be sold at Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Cal Kestis won. From March 2022, his hilt became available at both Disneyland Resort and Disney's Hollywood Studios. At Star Wars Celebration 2022, Lego unveiled a BD-1 set based on the game. Respawn confirmed a sequel in January 2022, with Stig Asmussen returning as director. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor arrived in April 2023 for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. Its story picks up five years after Fallen Order concludes. A bridging novel, Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars by Sam Maggs, was published on the 7th of March, 2023. At Star Wars Celebration 2025 in Chiba, Japan, a manga adaptation of the game was announced.