It’s been a long time coming, but the Halo TV series is finally set to premiere on Paramount+ next year, and it’s already being positioned as one of the freshly-rebranded streaming service’s marquee episodic properties, even if it’s spent an agonizing eternity in development already.
The current iteration was initially given a 10-episode series order at Showtime back in the summer of 2018, with Rise of the Planet of the Apes‘ Rupert Wyatt set as director and executive producer, and Kyle Killen as showrunner. However, Halo underwent several drastic changes in early 2021 that led the project to where it stands currently.
Wyatt dropped out of the director’s chair to be replaced by Peaky Blinders veteran Otto Bathurst, with Steven Kane added as co-showrunner alongside Killen, with the caveat that both of them would be exiting their roles once Season 1 had concluded, even though the latter had already departed before cameras had started rolling. On top of that, the video game adaptation was also shifted from Showtime to Paramount+.
That’s an awful lot of upheaval and turmoil for a single season of television, but in a new interview 343 Industries head Kiki Wolfkill revealed some brand new Halo details, teasing that longtime fans of the franchise will be seeing a brand new side of Master Chief.
“Probably the biggest challenge with adapting the game is, the game is designed to put you in Chief’s armor. What we’re asking people to do with the show is sort of sit back, and we’re going to present a side of Chief that you just don’t get to play in the game. For me, what gets me through it is focusing on where we need to get to, right? And focusing on what we want to be able to deliver and why.
The ‘why’ of it is really important. For the television series, we want to be able to do something new in Halo, and we want people to be able to experience it differently, and there’s such a responsibility, and there’s also just the personal, you know, drive of wanting to create something amazing. And you bring all those things together, and there’s sort of no room to panic.”
Halo still boasts Steven Spielberg as one of twelve executive producers, and it’s got a pretty decent cast locked in. Pablo Schrieber will lead the ensemble as Master Chief, with Natasha McElhone as Dr. Catherine Halsey, and Jen Taylor will offer some continuity by reprising her longtime voice role as Cortana. A blockbuster sci-fi series based on a beloved property sounds like a solid way for Paramount+ to prove it won’t be relying entirely on Star Trek to power the TV lineup forever.