Halo, the award-winning video game series, has been rumored to be getting a television show since acclaimed filmmaker Steven Spielberg (E.T., Jurassic Park) announced it at the E3 convention in 2013. Then, in 2018, the show was reported as being in production, and now in 2021, Microsoft has released the first footage of this show at their 20th anniversary Xbox event.
The games follow a genetically enhanced space marine (those marines are called spartans in the game’s canon) codenamed the Master Chief as he fights off the villainous alien alliance known as the Covenant to protect our planet. There have been five games in the series, with an upcoming sixth game, Halo Infinite, releasing this December.
The footage shows Master Chief first without his iconic spartan armor, an element rarely ever seen in the games. Audiences watch as he puts on that historic armor over his scarred and pale body. It is a quick fifteen-second montage, but in the end, fans are treated to seeing the live-action helmet of Master Chief and the show’s official logo.
Master Chief will be played by Pablo Schreiber (American God, Orange is the New Black). In contrast, Jen Taylor will play his trusted companion and artificially intelligent program, Cortana, famous for voicing the same character in the video games.
With fan excitement growing, it should be noted that this is not the series’ first foray into live-action. Multiple other projects based around Halo have been released, but most have been kept to a short five-episode web series medium to promote the video games. IGN produced and released Halo: Forward Unto Dawn in 2012 to build buzz for Halo 4. Then there were a series of short ads titled Halo Landfall that was initially going to be used as material for a Halo movie until funding from 21st Century Fox stopped due to the studio having monetary concerns.
As of right now, there is no definite release date, but fans can expect the show to be aired on the Paramount Plus streaming service, hopefully sooner than later.