The upcoming Halo TV show launches for streaming on March 24th starring Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief. Pablo Schreiber is a Canadian-American actor known best for his portrayal of Nick Sobotka on The Wire, and William Lewis on Law & Order Special Victims Unit.
When Halo premieres, it will be the culmination of years of false starts and dogged striving, including a Peter Jackson-produced feature film that fell apart in the s, more than six years of development by Amblin Television in the s, and a pandemic-split production in Hungary for the nine-episode first season that lasted nearly two years. behind a lot of anticipation and considerable monetary investment from Paramount Plus, it seems. Variety reports that Season had a budget of $ million per episode, which puts Season’s overall spend at around $ million for nine episodes.
The original trilogy of Halo Video games center on an interstellar war between humanity and an alliance of aliens known as The Covenant. The Covenant, led by their religious leaders called the Prophets, worship an ancient civilization known as the Forerunners, who perished while defeating the parasitic Flood. The eponymous Halo Array is a group of immense, habitable, and ring-shaped superweapons that were created by the Forerunners to destroy the Flood, but which the Covenant mistake for religious artifacts that, if activated, would transport them on a Great Journey to meet the Forerunners.
As of 2021, The Halo game series has sold over 81 million copies, grossing more than $4.2 billion USD. The latest release was Halo Infinite on December 8, 2021. Halo has since become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of ALL time. And Paramount is hoping this popularity translates into streaming viewers.
In the steaming show, Halo’s soldiers are far from the good guys. Instead, they are part of a fascist army hellbent on suppressing human colonies off-world. Like its video game counterpart, Master Chief as the protagonist is their wrecking ball: an overwhelming one-man army capable of killing aliens and his fellow humans without mercy at the orders of his superiors.
Schreiber describes his Master Chief character as a symbol of courage, for bravery, for effectiveness under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. He has a sense of humor that is often dry. Those aspects had to remain and had to be established. The rest is filled in with me as an actor, authentically experiencing the situations that were set up for me by the writers and the creators. Stepping away from Halo’s core values and doing something different. Opening the streaming season with some controversy. Master Chief will take off his helmet to show his face something never experienced in the game series.
Cortana, Master Chief’s wisecracking sidekick, and moral compass will also be in the series. Yet, it’s not yet clear what to expect from her in the new series; her purpose has been shrouded in mystery. At this point, all we know is that she will not be in the same familiar blue hologram form. Cortana has a new design, more realistic and human-shaped, with a muted color palette at odds with her classic look.
Hopes and expectations for the series are high. With the series already picked up for a 2nd season before the first episode even streams. Eyes and minds are set around a multi-year franchise (think at least 5 to 6 years at this point).