The Halo TV series finally got its first proper trailer and the release date, too. Season 1 will debut on March 24th, exclusively on Paramount+.
It’s been a long ride for the Halo TV series. Some of you might remember that once upon a time, Steven Spielberg himself was attached to the project. Then, development hell ensued, and for a time it seemed as if this would never see the light of day.
Eventually, however, Showtime got the rights and picked Kyle Killen as a showrunner. Later, he was joined by Steve Kane, even though Killen has since left and Kane has been reported to be leaving too after Season 1.
Pablo Schreiber was selected to play Master Chief. The main cast also includes Natascha McElhone as Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey (creator of the Spartan program), Yerin Ha as Kwan Ha Boo, Charlie Murphy as Makee, Shabana Azmi as Admiral Margaret Parangosky, Director of ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence), Bokeem Woodbine as Soren-066, Olive Gray as Miranda Keyes, Kate Kennedy as Kai-125, Natasha Culzac as Riz-028, Bentley Kalu as Vannak-134, Rafael Fernandez as Captain Jacob Keyes, and Jen Taylor voicing Cortana (just like in the games).
The Halo TV series was originally commissioned for ten episodes, but it might have been trimmed down to nine. At least that’s how many episodes are listed on the Internet Movie Database.
This adaptation won’t be an exact replica of the canon seen in the Halo games, though. It will be based on a so-called Silver Timeline instead. Franchise Creative Director, Frank O’Connor explained the concept in a recent interview with the official blog, Halo Waypoint.
The idea of the ‘Silver Timeline’ kept resurfacing throughout that process. We could compare the choice we landed on to other IPs, but that might set faulty or negative expectations and would likely oversimplify our intent.
Basically, we want to use the existing Halo lore, history, canon, and characters wherever they make sense for a linear narrative, but also separate the two distinctly so that we don’t invalidate the core canon or do unnatural things to force a first-person video game into an ensemble TV show. The game canon and its extended lore in novels, comics, and other outlets is core, original, and will continue unbroken for as long as we make Halo games.
To be clear: these will be two parallel, VERY similar, but ultimately separate timelines whose main events and characters will intersect and align throughout their very different cadences.
The TV show timeline – the ‘Silver Timeline’ – is grounded in the universe, characters and events of what’s been established in core canon, but will differ in subtle and not so subtle ways in order to tell a grounded, human story, set in the profoundly established Halo universe. Where differences and branches arise, they will do so in ways that make sense for the show, meaning that while many events, origins, character arcs, and outcomes will map to the Halo story fans know, there will be surprises, differences, and twists that will run parallel, but not identically to core canon.
Are you excited about the Halo TV series after this debut trailer? Let us know below!
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