It’s been a long time coming, but the Halo TV show — adapting the Halo: Combat Evolved video game series is finally set to premiere in 2022. And, wouldn't you know it, Halo season 2 is already confirmed.
The Halo TV show project has been in development for almost a decade. It was originally announced by Microsoft in 2013, back when it had with Steven Spielberg on board as a producer. Since then the series has endured a period of development hell, and last year moved from Showtime to streaming service Paramount Plus.
While dedicated Halo fans might have started to believe the small screen adaptation of the legendary sci-fi shooter game was never going to materialize, we have finally got our first look at the Halo TV show. And the reception has been mostly positive.
There isn’t long to wait until the Halo TV show sees the light of day, but until then here’s everything we know about Master Chief’s first live-action outing.
Halo TV show release date
The Halo TV series debuted on Thursday, March 24. This means you can now watch the Halo TV series for yourself to see Master Chief's face for yourself. We've got a roundup of fan reactions showing why the Halo TV series is both hated and loved by fans.
The show will hit Paramount Plus on March 24.
Paramount Plus confirmed a second season order in this tweet.
How many episodes the show’s first season will contain is currently unknown. We also don’t have confirmation if the whole series will drop in late March, or if Paramount Plus will instead opt for a weekly rollout schedule.
Halo TV show trailer
During the 2022 AFC Championship Game, the first trailer for the Halo TV show was dropped. This two-minute preview gives us a first look at Master Chief in action and also reveals his AI companion Cortana. We also get a brief tease of the villainous Covenant, and a whole host of human characters are showcased as well.
Check it out for yourself:
Halo TV Show cast
The Halo TV show will see Pablo Schreiber step into the iconic green power armor of Master Chief. The genetically-engineered supersoldier is the protagonist of the video game series and will be at the center of this television adaptation as well. However the TV show will break a key rule from the games, and show us the Master Chief's uncovered face.
Images of said face have leaked, and it's actually worse than we feared.
Schreiber will be joined by Natascha McElhone as Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, a human scientist, and creator of the Spartan-II Project who first appeared in 2010’s Halo: Reach. She has played an important role in the video game series, so will likely be a key player in the Halo TV Show as well.
The cast will be rounded out by Charlie Murphy, Shabana Azmi and Bokeem Woodbine. Yerin Ha will also feature as a new character reportedly named Kwan Ha Boo. From the trailer, it appears that Boo will have a fairly significant role to play.
Long-time Halo players will be pleased to hear that Jen Taylor will be reprising her role from the games as Cortana. Taylor has voiced Cortana since Halo: Combat Evolved, and will once again lend her voice to the AI character for the Halo TV show.
- Pablo Schreiber as the Master Chief, Spartan-117
- Natascha McElhone as Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey
- Jen Taylor as Cortana
- Yerin Ha as Kwan Ha Boo
- Bokeem Woodbine as Soren-066
- Shabana Azmi as Admiral Margaret Parangosky
- Natasha Culzac as Riz-028
- Olive Gray as Dr. Miranda Keyes
- Bentley Kalu as Vannak-134
- Kate Kennedy as Kai-125
- Charlie Murphy as Makee
- Danny Sapani as Captain Jacob Keyes
Halo TV show plot
The official plot synopsis for the Halo TV show reads: "Dramatizing an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant, Halo the series will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future."
This summary is pretty vague but it does at least suggest the creative team is being respectful to the source material (more on that below) and also attempting to capture Halo’s essence. It doesn’t appear the show will be adapting a specific storyline from one of the video games, but rather offer an original yarn that pulls together elements from across the series.
Of course, the Halo show will feature Master Chief, Cortana, the Covenant and the Spartans of Silver Team. That sounds like enough to make a pretty compelling Halo TV show to us.
Halo TV show's Silver Timeline chronology
Don't expect the Halo TV series to be a shot-for-shot reenactment of the games. This is because, as an official blog post explains, the Halo show exists on the Silver Timeline. What does that mean?
To quote said blog post, this means that the Halo series is on an "authentic, but independent timeline." Franchise Creative Director Frank O’Connor said that this is because the people behind the show "want to make sure that we’re not forcing either the game or the show to go in completely unnatural directions."
What does that mean? Well, O'Connor's also said the game and show will "two parallel, VERY similar, but ultimately separate timelines whose main events and characters will intersect and align throughout their very different cadences."
This is hopefully going to improve storytelling, as O'Connor said the series "is grounded in the universe, characters and events of what’s been established in core canon, but will differ in subtle and not so subtle ways in order to tell a grounded, human story, set in the profoundly established Halo universe."
Halo TV show outlook
At various points over the last decade, it’s looked likely that a Halo TV show would never actually come to fruition. So for that reason, it feels quite surreal to finally be just weeks away from the Halo TV show debuting.
The first trailer certainly looks promising, and it contains plenty of elements that are quintessentially Halo. However, the games are notorious for their branching narratives and extremely deep lore. Translating that into a television show that is accessible for general audiences could prove a tricky task.
Consider us cautiously optimistic about the Halo TV show for now. Roll on March 22 for our first real taste of Master Chief’s small screen debut.
