According to one of the lead creatives on the upcoming Halo TV series, the team didn’t look at or talk about the games when developing the show. The Halo series has been a show that has been stuck in development hell for roughly a decade. The show is produced by Steven Spielberg, who has been attached ever since the show was at Showtime as part of Xbox’s initiative to produce multi-media content for its franchises. Although the show has reportedly taken many shapes during its development, it sounds like it wasn’t super important to follow the games.
In an interview with Variety, Halo season one showrunner Steven Kane stated that they didn’t look to the games for help with the show. “We didn’t look at the game,” says Kane. “We didn’t talk about the game. We talked about the characters and the world. So I never felt limited by it being a game.” Given the Halo TV series is in a separate timeline from the games, it’s not super shocking to learn that they didn’t pay attention to the games. The general lore and world that is expanded on in things like books is what would be most helpful for a show like this. Of course, Master Chief does evolve a bit over the video games as he’s torn between his duties as a soldier and his admiration for Cortana, but perhaps defining who Chief is at his core and starting from there will be a good thing.
The Halo show is already getting good reviews, so it doesn’t seem like they strayed too far from what people like about Halo or turned into something terrible. Given video game adaptations, particularly ones in development hell, rarely turn out good, Halo seems to have broken the curse. Paramount has already greenlit a second season of Halo, speaking to its confidence in the big-budget series.
The Halo series premieres on Paramount+ on March 24, 2022. You can read more of our coverage on the series by clicking here.
What do you think about the Halo show straying away from the games? Let me know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
