For years, Hollywood has been attempting to adapt the widely successful and popular video game series Halo into a film. And while that effort has been unsuccessful, even with the involvement of creatives like Peter Jackson, Neil Blomkamp, Steven Spielberg, Rupert Wyatt and Alex Garland, there will finally be a television series premiering on Paramount+. It seems as though those efforts have finally paid off. A long-awaited trailer for Halo finally dropped over the weekend and it was jam-packed with information and clues, so let’s dive in and see what we can expect from this sci-fi adventure series.
Fans of the series will be quick to note that the longtime voice of the Master Chief, Chicago radio DJ Steve Downes, has not returned to voice the character. Stepping in to fill the Chief’s larger than life shoes is character actor Pablo Schreiber (The Wire, Orange is the New Black) and while his face isn’t visible during the trailer, his voice is on full display and seems to be doing his best impression of Downes’ now iconic voice performance. The Chief’s fighting abilities are also on full display as several scenes show him facing down against Covenant soldiers and using a variety of weapons to take down his opponents. While it is unknown when the show will take place during the timeline of the video games, it can be reasonably inferred that it will occur sometime before the events of the first game as the Covenant continues to loom until a group of Space Marines encounter a gigantic ring structure in space. While the Halo itself doesn’t make an appearance in the trailer, it is referenced as something that the Covenant is looking as a means to end their war against humanity and naturally, this becomes an object of curiosity for Marines so they may end the war.
We can also expect the history of the Spartans to be explored as well as the effects of a life spent in military service can take on a person. Not to get too far into the lore of the Halo universe, Spartan soldiers are abducted as children to train in a variety of military tactics then biologically and cybernetically enhanced to fill out the ranks of the Marines Special Forces. Many of the children died during this indoctrination process forcing the surviving Spartans to bury their feelings and focus on the mission. This trauma and grappling with surviving is personified by Soren-066 portrayed by Bokeem Woodbine and while it remains to be seen if Soren will don Spartan armor or enter combat, he carries the emotional weight of knowing what the Spartans went through as he mentions the toll the indoctrination process takes on people.
The hyper-intelligent A.I., Cortana, will also make an appearance and longtime voice of the character, Jen Taylor, will return to voice the A.I. as she helps the Master Chief in combat and analyzing Covenant artifacts. Speaking of the Covenant, they are present but in what seems like a new addition to the series, humans appear to be working together with the Covenant as an unknown character compels humans to surrender to the Covenant as she is walking through a medical room as a tentacled creature is assaulting other Marines. It’s unknown who this character is or what role she will play in the series but it’s safe to assume that she may be the main antagonist of this series. The developers of the show also seemed to be paying close attention to the design of the video games as weapons, vehicles, armor and locations are nearly identical to their counterparts on the show. We can expect a carefully crafted, slow burn of a series as the full story has yet to be revealed ahead of the March 24th premiere date.
Featured Image Credit: Paramount+
