From its origins as a feature film produced by Peter Jackson that fell apart in the 2000s to Steven Spielberg's developing project, Halo had a long way to TV, but it eventually came. The new sci-fi series based on the popular Xbox video game premiered on Paramount+ on Thursday 24 of this month and will have a new episode every week until the completion of its first season.
With Spielberg's executive production and a budget of $90 million, Halo tells the story of a 26th-century intergalactic war between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant, a theocratic-military alliance of several advanced alien races.
The series stars Pablo Schrieber as Master Chief, an imposing supersoldier, raised and trained since childhood for combat in defense of humanity. After Master Chief and Silver Team, the squad he leads, defeat a group of enemy scouts on the planet Madrigal, the group discovers a mysterious object that could be the key to ending the human-alien war. However, as each army competes for control of the object, a surprising revelation leaves Master Chief questioning not only the mission assigned to him, but also himself.
Schrieber comes from prominent roles such as George “Pornstache” Mendez in Orange is the New Black and Mad Sweeney in American Gods. In the role of Master Chief, also known as John-117, he has to embody the conflict of the robotic hero who shows no emotion, but who gradually begins to question his superiors and find his own scale of values.
Natascha McElhone also acts as Dr. Halsey, the scientist behind the Spartans; Yerin Ha as Kwan, the daughter of a military leader who Master Chief rescues from attack, and Jen Taylor as the artificial intelligence clone, Cortana. The cast is completed by Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo), Shabana Azmi Fire, Natasha Culzac (The Witcher), Olive Grey (Half Moon Investigations), Yerin Ha (Reef Break), Bentley Kalu (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Kate Kennedy (Catastrophe), Charlie Murphy (Peaky Blinders) and Danny Sapphe Penny Dreadful ).
This war-torn intergalactic universe will be familiar to those who have already immersed themselves in the video game - which has raised more than $6 billion in total sales since its launch with the original Xbox in November 2001 - but the creators of the series are also looking to make the first season fully storytelling new and attractive to the general public.
In its television version, Halo exists in its own canon, which means that you don't have to worry about it encountering events that you might know from games, novels or any other medium that has explored the saga.
The first season will have nine episodes of about an hour, and production of the second season is already approved, so everything points to this story just beginning.
The new episodes will be released on Paramount+ every Thursday, until the end of the season, on May 19. Flow customers will be able to subscribe to the Paramount+ Premium Pack and enjoy all their free content for 12 months, from any device.
HALO is produced by SHOWTIME® in partnership with 343 Industries, together with Amblin Television. The first season of HALO is executive produced by Steven Kane, along with Steven Spielberg, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey for Amblin Television in partnership with 343 Industries, Otto Bathurst and Toby Leslie for One Big Picture, Kyle Killen and Scott Pennington for Chapter Eleven.