“Silence fills the empty grave, now that I have gone. But my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on. I will ask, and you will answer.” – The Gravemind, Halo 2
In this day-and-age there are series’ being produced left, right, and centre and with this, you can even watch a series based on your favourite video games; if it’s not already out then you can count on the fact that it’ll likely get its own show soon enough.
Halo is one of those games that certainly deserve a show and has loads of potential and has actually been around in whispers for quite some time. This time around, however, it seems that all the patience and persistence has paid off as there’s actually been a short sneak-peak and it’s certainly looking a lot more promising (we’ll just add the sidenote that the estimated budget of $200 million. I’m not even going to put that in rands because it looks utterly ridiculous).
What Is Halo?
Halo is an FPS, real-time strategy, military science fiction game (technically media franchise due to the array of best-selling novels, comic books, graphic novels, short films, animated movies, and feature films; but it is much more well-known for the game series).
The Halo Array (simply known as Halo) is a network of immense ring-shaped superweapons made up of individual Halo rings that were constructed by the Forerunners (with the Latin name meaning “Firstborn”, who are an antediluvian genus of extremely technologically advanced beings who had an empire encompassing three million prolific worlds within the Milky Way Galaxy.
They reigned supreme until they set into motion their Pyrrhic solution to halt the Flood {LF.Xx.3273. Referred to as the Parasite or Infection, a virulent parasitic organism that feasts on sentient beings in order to grow and reproduce.} in its tracks. After which they took it upon themselves to be the caretakers of the galaxy).
Not only were these Halos used as last-resort superweapons, but they were also used as research facilities that were dedicated to containing and studying various lifeforms which included hand-selected marine life, fauna, and flora. These studies were conducted for various reasons, one of which included to determine if the rings could be used to repopulate the galaxy as a part of the Conservation Measure conducted by the Forerunners.
Playing as super-soldier, Master Chief, you journey out to uncover the mysteries of the Halo.
“Halo is set to follow “an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure, and a richly imagined vision of the future.”
To The Point
So after my very summarized ramble about this masterpiece of a game, we can get to the actual point.
There has been some more noteworthy peaks at what is to be an official live-action Halo series underway. It was originally mentioned way back at E3 2013 with a release dated for 2015 which then got shifted up to 2019 and then 2020…and now the series is finally coming to light with actual content to show for it – however brief it might be.
E3 2013 Halo Television Series – Announcement
We do get a nice close-up glimpse of Master Chief Petty Officer John-117’s Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor in the trailer too. This Mjolnir Armor might ring a bell to some due to the fact that it is named after the hammer of Thor from Germanic (Norse) mythology. It is a technologically advanced combat exoskeleton with the purpose of vastly improving agility, durability, strength, speed, and reflexes of the Spartan super-soldiers.
It was at the Microsoft 20th Anniversary Event that it was revealed with the very brief trailer (skip to 23:30 of the below video).
Xbox Anniversary Celebration
Going based on the trailer this time around, the series is planned to air in 2022 with Otto Bathurst as the producer. We’ll also be getting a treat with the original voice actress, Jen Taylor, voicing Cortana (the AI character from the Halo games) as well as supposedly playing as Dr. Catherine Halsey. We can also expect to see Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, Natasha Culzac as Riz-028, Kate Kennedy as Kai-125, Olive Grey as Miranda Keyes, Bentley Kalu as Vannak-134, and quite a few more lined up. However, we can also expect that after season one we will no longer see Steven Kane in the show.
“The series will also introduce three all-new characters to the Halo universe. British actor Kalu will play Spartan Vannak-134, a cybernetically augmented supersoldier conscripted at childhood who serves as the defacto deputy to the Master Chief. British actress Culzac will star in the role of Spartan Riz-028 – a focused, professional, and deadly, cybernetically enhanced killing machine. Kennedy stars as Spartan Kai-125, an all-new courageous, curious, and deadly Spartan supersoldier. Yerin Ha was previously announced playing the new character Kwan Ha, a shrewd, audacious 16-year-old from the Outer Colonies who meets Master Chief at a fateful time for them both.”
This is by far the most ambitious take on a Halo series and I’m honestly hyped about it. I definitely have much higher hopes for this than what I currently do for season two of The Witcher because come on, let’s be real, season one of The Witcher was quite the let-down (commence uproar in 3…2…1…)