News Showtime making a ‘Halo’ TV Show, Filming starts in 2019

[JD]

My only experience with Halo is the first two games, but I loved them and I've been curious to see more of the universe, and this looks like it'll be the perfect opportunity to do that.
The trailer looked pretty good to me, one of the things I've been curious about was their take on the Covenant, and I liked what we saw here.
I've read a bit about some of the non-game stuff, so I recognized a lot of the stuff in the trailer, but one thing I didn't recognize was the woman with the giant collar on her robe or dress or whatever, and the other people she was with. Who are they?

 

[David cgc]

Also; a Phil Collins cover? When you have one of the most recognisable musical themes in video games? OK . . . That's a choice I guess.

Maybe they were saving it for the general Paramount+ commercial that debuted during the same event:

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I've read a bit about some of the non-game stuff, so I recognized a lot of the stuff in the trailer, but one thing I didn't recognize was the woman with the giant collar on her robe or dress or whatever, and the other people she was with. Who are they?

The short-haired blonde woman is new to the series, she's a captured human that was raised by the Covenant, probably so they could take advantage of humans' affinity for the Forerunner technology they worship even though they were killing all the humans for being uncomfortably close to the Forerunners.

We saw her meeting the three Hierarchs that lead the Covenant in that giant empty room, and she also seemed to be directing the eels that make up Hunters (though outside of the Hunter armor) when she was attacking a human ship.

 

[JD]

Oh, OK. I remember the Hirearchs, I didn't realize that was who she was with in that clip though.
So are the Hunters colony organisms? I thought the orange stuff was just supposed to be their muscles or something like that.

 

[Gaith]

Speaking as someone with no real nostalgic affection for the series* I have to say the trailer really didn't wow me. It looks semi-expensive, competently acted, but it's not pulling me into the world or making me want to learn more.

Agreed. After Mandalorian and Boba Fett, are we really getting another protagonist in a helmet show? And every single line spoken was a grating cliche: "It looks like some kind of... object." Really?

 

[David cgc]

So are the Hunters colony organisms? I thought the orange stuff was just supposed to be their muscles or something like that.

Yep. There have been a few other times we've seen the worms on their own, and other things they can be used in (the big Covenant walkers, for instance, are full of Hunter worms). In this video, a bonus added to the 10th anniversary re-release of Halo 2, you can see "wild" Hunters forming themselves using rocks rather than armor and a giant gun starting at about 1:20.

 

[JD]

Ok, I see.

 

[FPAlpha]

Agreed. After Mandalorian and Boba Fett, are we really getting another protagonist in a helmet show? And every single line spoken was a grating cliche: "It looks like some kind of... object." Really?

About the helmet - do you really think that's a fair criticism? One of the core elements of Halo is that Masterchief never takes off his helmet ( at least the players never see his face) to sell the illusion that the players can project themselves into the character.

Should they have abandoned that extremely important detail just so they don't apear to copy Mandalorian?

Anyway - awesome trailer showcasing its high budget and cool action scenes. Let's see if the rest holds up.

 

[Reverend]

The helmet thing honestly doesn't bother me. Yes, it's only a thing in-game to make the PC as much of a blank cipher as possible (at least in the early games; that may have changed over time of course.) But nonetheless it's a signature part of the franchise and I can't seen them getting rid of it, anymore than I could see any self respecting Judge Dredd show and/or movie doing any different.

That said, Halo's highly derivative aesthetic and tropes does mean that since yes, there's already a very successful sci-fi action show with a guy that (almost) never takes off his helmet (I don't count Fett since he's out of the helmet way more than he's in it so far) so really needs to sell an audience on what makes it unique. As of yet I'm really not seeing anything that's jumping out at me as particularly unique. Hell, they're not even executing the 'James Cameron by way of Larry Niven' thing all that effectively.

 

[FPAlpha]

If you go back far along it is said that there are only very few original stories and everything that came after is a copy of this - hell, Lord of the Rings is a copy of various mythologies because Tolkien felt that the British didn't have a mythology of their own apart from King Arthur perhaps.

The spersoldier in special armor has been done to death in Sci Fi, Halo's have been done in Niven's Ringworld etc - if we take that as a standard we might stop telling stories altogether because someone somewhere will always say it's been done already. A good story finds its own thing to tell even if it uses common tropes and elements, so why disparage it even before it had its shot at telling its own story?

Sometimes i do actually wonder about fandom and if they actually like things or are just there to argue and elevate themselves by pointing out things they believe are crap.

 

[JD]

Other than Master Chief probably never taking off his helmet, I really don't see any similarities between this and the Star Wars shows. It looks like it's going to have very different themes, and tone, and a very story.
And to be fair, they've been trying to do a Halo movies or show since long before Disney+ even existed.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Master Chief was already 'just another space marine in a helmet' back in 2001. Granted his games had some innovations to make them stand out and shift copies, but the people who played them grew attached to the character just fine despite his lack of originality.

Plus we've already had Aliens and Starship Troopers movies, but we've never had an Aliens meets Starship Troopers TV series to my knowledge. Not one with the budget to really pull it off at least (sorry Space: Above and Beyond).

 

[Awesome Possum]

I hope Chief never takes off his helmet. They can show him out of the armor and as a child, but never showing his face should be pretty important on the show. The trailer looks great, maybe make Cortana a little bluer though.

 

[Marc]

I hope Chief never takes off his helmet. They can show him out of the armor and as a child, but never showing his face should be pretty important on the show. The trailer looks great, maybe make Cortana a little bluer though.

So Cortana is from the game not a microsoft product placement?

 

[FreezeC77]

So Cortana is from the game not a microsoft product placement?

Prob a bit of both since Halo was a Microsoft Xbox exclusive and came out 20+ years ago.

Cortana/Bing assistant is about 7 years old and Microsoft named it after the Halo AI and got the same voice actress for it.

 

[fireproof78]

So Cortana is from the game not a microsoft product placement?

Correct. Cortana came from the original Bungie game, and when Microsoft acquired they started utilizing related names more.

 

[Awesome Possum]

So Cortana is from the game not a microsoft product placement?

The AI assistant is named after the game character. I think originally they just named it Cortana as a joke during development and they kept it because people just liked it better that way.

 

[Gaith]

About the helmet - do you really think that's a fair criticism? One of the core elements of Halo is that Masterchief never takes off his helmet ( at least the players never see his face) to sell the illusion that the players can project themselves into the character.

So it's a style decision related to gaming. I don't see why a TV series should maintain it, though. Din Djarin rarely taking off his helmet works because it's built into the story and character (but even then, I'm hoping to see a lot more of Pedro Pascal unhelmeted, because he's awesome). It's hard to imagine that kind of conceit not becoming immediately annoying in a TV series when there's no real in-universe for it, however.

 

[David cgc]

There have already been cases in the games and other tie-ins where the Chief is the only weirdo in the room wearing his helmet, to preserve the mystique, even though it doesn’t make sense. And then only for the audience. The other characters get to see him.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Things I know about the Master Chief: he can hold two guns, he has blue hologram sidekick in his suit, and we never ever get to see his face. It'd be a real shame if they dropped one of the things that defines him to a lot of people. Just like it was a shame when Sylvester Stallone took the helmet off in Judge Dredd.

That said, I wouldn't be too annoyed if I was watching a Half-Life series and Gordon Freeman started talking.

 

[fireproof78]

There have already been cases in the games and other tie-ins where the Chief is the only weirdo in the room wearing his helmet, to preserve the mystique, even though it doesn’t make sense. And then only for the audience. The other characters get to see him.

The novels actually explain it a little.