Directed by Otto Bathurst
Written by Kyle Killen and Steven Kane
Starring Pablo Schreiber, Yerin Ha, Danny Spani, Natascha McElhone, and Jen Taylor
New episodes airing Thursdays on Paramount+

by Emily Maesar, Associate Editor, TVJawn

I do not envy the showrunners of the new Halo series. It’s a rough gig to step into, even if it’s your dream project. The first Halo (aka Halo: Combat Evolved, or Halo: CE) was released alongside the original XBox in November of 2001, and is widely considered one of the classics in both story, design, and gameplay. Halo was, by no means, the first big FPS (First Person Shooter), but the leaps and bounds between the 1993 release of Doom and the 2001 release of Halo was certainly a game changer in the genre.

But as a transmedia property, Halo has been in development hell for almost 20 years. Originally planned as a film adaptation, with a script by Alex Garland, there have been so many false starts and smaller, albeit often still “official,” iterations of the franchise outside of video games. So, the release of the Kyle Killen and Steven Kane developed series in 2022 is nothing short of a miracle.

However, like many adaptations (especially of something so wildly popular), Halo had a lot of choices to make about how it would be adapted, particularly where the story was concerned. It was announced early on that the TV series would operate in its own canon, outside of the games. This was met with mixed feelings from fans, including myself. First original run of games is, pretty widely, concerned to be the best of the franchise. They were developed by the game studio Bungie while the developer was still under the Microsoft umbrella. In 2010, however, the last Bungie and Microsoft game, Halo: Reach, was released. In 2007, 343 Industries was created with the departure of Bungie from Microsoft, and all the games after Halo: Reach have been met with a fun mix of shrugging and vitriol across the board. 

So, the decision to have the Halo TV show create its own canon and timeline had people on edge. And boy is it a different world, compared to the games. The story of Halo, at its base level, is about a war between humanity and the Covenant, an alien race that’s determined to kill us. All of which is seen through the eyes of Master Chief (often known as John, John-117, or Spartan-117) and his companion, the AI known as Cortana. 

Obviously there’s a lot more going on there, but those are the building blocks that Killen and Kane are ultimately working with. And while they’ve messed around with the timeline, like Chief doesn’t have Cortana yet and somehow everybody knows that the Spartans exist at all, the series feels like it’s really trying to balance paying homage with forging its own way forward.  

But, of course, the biggest elephant in the room was always going to be the matter of John’s helmet. Within the context of the games, it makes sense to never see his face. You’re playing in first person, and there’s no reason for him to take off his helmet during literally any cut scenes, since he’s in combat every single time. And so, through his facelessness, John is allowed to be an everyman - in so much as an over-7-foot tall superhuman can be an “everyman.” 

But there are a few factors that play into the Halo TV series making the very specific choice to unmask Spartan-117. First, there’s the actor to consider. I’m sure Pablo Schreiber didn’t want to be in a helmet the whole show, no matter how big a Halo game fan he might be. Plus, he’s a hottie, so there’s no accounting for the marketability of that. And second, there’s simply no plot reason for John to keep the helmet on. There’s a comparison to be made to The Mandalorian here, but the armor is part of Mando’s faith and so whenever he takes it off it means something specific. In the pilot for Halo, John removing his helmet also means something, but not because of anything deeper than humanizing the player character. He’s been a faceless super soldier, a space marine sent to kill aliens and rebels alike, but in that moment he is human. He has to show Kwan that there’s a person under all that armor, and he’s trying to help her - even if it means disobeying orders. 

Which… yeah. I think it works. I don’t love it as a Halo fan, but I like it as a story and television fan. And I think that since this is a television show and not just an extension of the video game, that it’s a good choice for the momentum of the series. Only time will tell if the main plot of the series will stand on its own enough, or be interesting without the very specific context of the games, but I think the pilot is a good first step and I’m excited to see how this all plays out.