Star Wars Jedi: Survivor director Stig Asmussen has revealed that Cameron Monaghan ad-libbed Cal Kestis' brutal double-tap blaster shot in the game's final confrontation. Spoilers ahead for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
Respawn promised us that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was going to be a much darker game than Fallen Order, and it certainly delivered. The second half of the game shows Cal Kestis giving into the dark side of the Force on several occasions and showing us a much more brutal side of his personality. By far his most brutal moment comes during his final battle with Bode Akuna.
After defeating Bode and failing to reason with him to give up fighting and join their side, Cal and Bode go to shoot one another, with Cal getting the upper hand and firing a shot into Bode's chest. That's brutal enough, but Cal then follows up with a second shot just to make sure he's dead, which is incredibly cold when you consider his daughter is standing a few feet away from them both and just saw her dad turn to the dark side. He must have watched Zombieland and kept the number two rule in mind, then.
As it turns out, that particularly brutal moment for Cal was actually ad-libbed by Cameron Monaghan, the actor behind everyone's favourite ginger Jedi. This was revealed by Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's director, Stig Asmussen, when he appeared on IGN's Beyond spoilercast earlier this week.
After speaking about Monaghan's performance as Cal in the game, Asmussen is asked whether there was anything that he ad-libbed or improvised that made it into the final game. Asmussen replies by revealing that Cal's decision to brutally shoot Bode twice to make sure he was dead was one that Monaghan himself improvised, and that the original script said that Cal shot at Bode once.
Asmussen said, "The most important moment in the game where he fires two shots, that was his idea to do the second shot". This suggests that the original version of the scene was a little less brutal, but that Monaghan decided that, in the moment, that's what Cal would have done to make sure that Merrin and Kata were safe.
When asked about how the team decided on killing Bode and what it represents for Cal's character, Asmussen said this, "Bode became a monster, he completely lost the plot. He would have killed Cal if that shot fired from his blaster, Cal would be dead and Cal can't take that risk. That's why he did it with extreme prejudice, why he goes for that second shot."