After seven years of development, the Halo TV series is finally making its way to Paramount+. The streaming service unveiled a new trailer for the video game adaptation on January 30, revealing the Halo release date, which is just a few weeks away. In honor of the new update, here’s everything we know about the show, including its cast, plot, and more.
Halo TV Series Release Date
The new trailer, released during the 2022 AFC Championship Game, lists Halo’s release date as March 24, 2022. Many fans who waited years for the adaptation are thrilled to see that it’s now less than two months away.
At the time of this writing, it’s unclear how many episodes Paramount+ will include in the series. We also don’t know if the episodes will be released all at once or every week. However, if the show will be released like previous Paramount+ originals like Star Trek: Picard and iCarly, then Halo will likely be a weekly show.
Halo TV Series Cast: Who’s In It?
Taking on the main role of Master Chief is Pablo Schreiber of Orange is the fame of New Black and Den of Thieves. Meanwhile, Cortana will be played by Jen Taylor, the same voice actor who played the AI companion in the video game Halo.
In addition to Master Chief and Cortana, Halo fans will see several other video game characters represented in the TV series. For example, scientist Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey will appear, played by Natascha McElhone. There are also several new faces, including a character named Kwan Ha Boo (Yerin Ha).
Here are the rest of the Halo TV series cast, per IMDb:
Bokeem Woodbine (bermain Soren-066)
Shabana Azmi (Laksamana Margaret Parangosky)
Olive Grey (Dr. Miranda Keyes)
Danny Sapani (Kapten Jacob Keyes)
Kate Kennedy (Kai-125)
Natasha Culzac (Riz-028)
Bentley Kalu (Vannak-134)
Charlie Murphy (Makee)
Story and Setting of the Halo TV Series
We don’t know much about the story of the Halo TV show, although what we do know allows us to get a rough idea of what the plot will likely be.
Based on the trailers and pieces of information that have released thus far, we know that the show will largely focus on Master Chief and Cortana, as well as their Spartan and UNSC allies, as they fight the alien Covenant Empire that seeks to wipe out humanity during the Human-Covenant War.
The high-ranking leaders of the UNSC appear to be suspicious of Master Chief and aren’t sure whether they can trust him, suggesting that there will be a rift between the Spartan and his commanders at some point during the show.
Conceptually, one of the show’s more interesting characters is Makee, a human woman that was raised by the Covenant and appears to be working with them. In the official trailer for the series, she is heard arguing that humanity should surrender to the Covenant while she’s shown unleashing Lekgolo worms, one of the Covenant’s alien species, on UNSC soldiers.
ring, one of the installations that an ancient alien species called the Forerunners used thousands of years ago to wipe out most life in the galaxy and stop a ruthless parasite called the Flood. In the Halo games, Master Chief destroys the first ring he comes across to stop the Covenant from controlling it; in the show, it sounds like Chief wants to try to use a Halo ring to win the war against the Covenant. For now, it’s unclear whether the ring in the show will work the same way that the rings in the games and novels do.
Notably, the Halo TV series is taking place in a “Silver Timeline,” an alternate canon that’s similar to the core timeline of the games and novels, but different enough that the showrunners can tell the story they want to tell without being hindered by the events of the main timeline.
How Closely Will The Halo TV Series Follow The Games?
According to Paramount+’s official synopsis, the show will follow the “dramatization” of “an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant.”
While the series includes many Halo characters and stays true to the general plot of the games, it won’t directly adapt any storylines. Instead, the series follows the “silver timeline.” According to a Halo blog post, the adaptation will deliver a parallel timeline with events that differ from the video games.
“To tell the best Halo stories we can, we want to protect the integrity, simplicity, and future of the core canon, but also not be limited by it when faced with the realities of a new medium and the process of production,” the post read. “As a result, we made the decision to set the Halo television series in an authentic, but independent timeline.”
Halo premieres on Paramount+ on March 24. Stay tuned to Showbiz Cheat Sheet for more updates on the TV show.
Halo TV Series Trailer
Set to a slowed-down cover version of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” the Halo TV series trailer introduced viewers to protagonist Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 (a.k.a. Master Chief) and his AI assistant, Cortana. The action-packed two minutes also offered a glimpse at the battle with the evil Covenant and teased Master Chief’s ultimate mission: “Find the Halo, win the war.”
Fans can check out the full Halo trailer above.
