It’s now been close to a full year since Respawn Entertainment released Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The Soulslike game with a coat of Star Wars paint was a massive success, and managed to receive high praise from critics and Star Wars fans alike. With so many players infatuated with the game, it likely came as no surprise when EA confirmed that Jedi: Fallen Order would be the first of many new games in a franchise.
However, since that confirmation near the middle of 2020, both EA and Respawn Entertainment have remained quite silent as to what players could look forward to in the franchise's next entry. Considering the first game released mid-November of 2019, it's likely that Jedi: Fallen Order 2 hasn't even begun pre-production yet. It's also likely that development hasn't been helped by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order falls into a few problems when it comes to the future of the franchise. With the first game beginning five years after Order 66 takes place and concluding not long afterward, the franchise doesn't have a lot of wiggle room in terms of the overall Star Wars timeline. It would be not long after Jedi: Fallen Order ends that the show Star Wars: Rebels begins. While this in itself isn't a bad thing, EA and Respawn would likely have a hard time explaining why Cal and the rest of the Mantis weren't aiding fellow Jedi Kanan Jarrus and his padawan, Ezra Bridger.
Even without concerns over the crowded Star Wars timeline, Jedi: Fallen Order's ending raises potential questions as well. At the end of the first game, Cal makes the decision to destroy the Holocron that has a list of force-sensitive youth. And while this ending left many players on a happy note, it had others feeling as though Cal's journey had been for nothing in the end. Because of this, where Cal will go next is left slightly ambiguous as the crew makes the decision to not even seek out the children without the Holocron's help.
While it's quite possible that EA and Respawn will elect to continue Cal's story in Jedi: Fallen Order 2, the developer has an opportunity to deviate from the normal progression of Star Wars games in the sequel. Jedi: Fallen Order 2 could explore what it really means to be a villain in the Star Wars universe by having the main character dedicated to the dark side.
When it comes to Star Wars games in recent gaming history, very few of them have explored what it means to be a villain within the universe. Every now and then, players get an opportunity to play the bad guy such as Iden Versio in the campaign for Star Wars Battlefront 2, but it seems to never feel like the "real deal." Perhaps this is because characters like Versio often end up having a change of heart within the first few hours of the campaign and defect to the Rebellion or the light side. This can often lead players to feel as if the marketing used to promote the game until launch was disingenuous and misleading.
This is where Jedi: Fallen Order 2 has an opportunity to change things up for the Star Wars community. Rather than focus on what Cal and his friends are up to as a group of protagonists, Jedi: Fallen Order 2 could paint them in an antagonistic light as players take on the role of a new Inquisitor tasked by Vader to hunt them down. This could give players the justification they need for why Cal had never been seen or heard from during the events of the original Star Wars trilogy.
While this decision to stick strictly with the Dark Side could prove tough for EA and Respawn, there are some steps that they can take to not make the game a purely evil experience. Jedi: Fallen Order 2 could put players in the role of the former Nightsister, Merrin. The magick that Nightsisters practice is steeped in the dark side of the force, however, it seems to imply that Cal and Cere might teach her to become a Jedi. If Merrin were to be the primary protagonist, players could experience what it means to be tugged back and forth between the dark and the light. This could lead to players having to ultimately decide whether they want to betray Cal and join Vader as an Inquisitor, or reject the dark and stay true to the teachings from her Jedi friends.
It's likely that players are still a couple of years away from a formal Jedi: Fallen Order 2 announcement, but it seems that Respawn Entertainment has plenty to work from as they develop the next game in this promising franchise.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.