Showtime Explains Why The Long-Awaited HALO Series Moved To Paramount+

The live-action adaptation of Halo has been through quite a nightmarish journey in its various attempts to get made. Well, producer Steven Spielberg’s Halo project is actually happening. He and his creative team managed to pull it off and the 10-episode series is coming to Paramount+ in 2022!

The series was originally supposed to premiere on Showtime, and when talking about the show’s departure from their network, Jana Winograde, co-president of Showtime Entertainment, said:

“We love Halo. We have great affection for it. And that’s a good fit, because we continue on at the studio. So, we’re going to be intimately involved with the creative and the production of it. But the truth is that it was always a bit of an outlier for us in terms of its fit in the Showtime universe. We did an amazing job of imbuing into the series the character drama that we’re so well known for. But at the end of the day, it is a big, broad, big—tent show, so when Paramount+ came into being, it really was a natural fit there.”

Co-president Gary Levine added:

“Look, we started developing Halo seven years ago when there was no Paramount+ or even the glimmer of an idea about it. And it was always a bit of an odd fit, you know? ‘What is Showtime doing talking a video game, a first-person shooter video game, and putting it in their dramas? We worked real hard over all those years, as Jana has said, to find ways that it could fit. But when Paramount+ emerged, you know, it seemed like it was a better fit for Paramount+.”

It was also confirmed by Chief Programming Officer of ViacomCBS Streaming, Tanya Giles, that the long-awaited Halo series will premiere in 2022. She went on to say:

“Halo, produced by Showtime and partnership with 343 Industries and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television, will take place in the universe that first came to be in 2001. It’s an epic, 26th century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. The show will lean deeply on personal stories, action, adventure, and a richly imagined version of the future. It’s aimed at both Halo fans and audiences not familiar with Halo, alike.”

Pablo Schreiber plays Master Chief in the series, and he’s been described as “Earth’s most advanced warrior in the 26th century and the only hope of salvation for a civilization pushed to the brink of destruction by the Covenant, an unstoppable alliance of alien worlds committed to the destruction of humanity.”

The series is said to respect the Halo canon. Everything in the video games, the comics, novels, and the previously made series, will all be taken into account as the story for this series plays out. David Nevins, Chief Creative Officer, CBS & Chairman and CEO, Showtime Networks, said about the series.

“It delivers the visceral excitement of playing the game, along with a much deeper emotional experience around the Spartans, human beings who got their humanity chemically and genetically altered. The story is about reclaiming what makes them human, and therefore it’s a very powerful story.”

Pablo will be joined by newcomer Yerin Ha, who will play a new character within the Halo world named Quan Ah, “a shrewd, audacious 16-year-old from the Outer Colonies who meets Master Chief at a fateful time for them both.” The cast of the series also includes Natascha McElhone, Bokeem Woodbine, Shabana Azmi, Bentley Kalu, Natasha Culzac, and Kate Kennedy.

McElhone (Californication) will take on the role of two characters in the series. Dr. Catherine Halsey, "the creator of the Spartan supersoldiers, and Cortana, the most advanced AI in human history, and potentially the key to the survival of the human race.”

Woodbine (Fargo) will play Soren-066, “a privateer at the fringes of human civilization whose fate will bring him into conflict with his former military masters and his old friend, the Master Chief.”

Azmi (Next Of Kin) will play Admiral Margaret Parangosky, “the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence.”

Kalu (Avengers: Age of Ultron) will play a new character for the series, Spartan Vannak-134, “a cybernetically augmented supersoldier conscripted at childhood who serves as the defacto deputy to the Master Chief.”

Culzac (The Witcher) will take on another new role of Spartan Riz-028, “a focused, professional and deadly, cybernetically enhanced killing machine.”

Kennedy (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) will be yet another new character named Spartan Kai-125, “a courageous, curious, and deadly Spartan supersoldier.”

Multiple episodes of the series will be directed by Otto Bathurst (Peaky Blinders) from writer Kyle Killen (Awake) who is also serving as executive producer and showrunner.

While it’s taken forever for this Halo adaptation to get made, I’m still excited to see how it turns out!

Source: Decider