Producer Steven Spielberg has been working with Showtime, 343 Industries, and Amblin Television on a series adaptation of the hit video game franchise Halo for years. Well, it’s now been announced that the project will move from Showtime to ViacomCBS’ streaming service Paramount+.
The series is currently in production in Budapest and will premiere on Paramount+ in 2022. 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.”
Nevins went on to talk about why they made the push to get Halo on Paramount+ saying, “We were on the hunt for signature shows beyond the Star Trek franchise on CBS All Access and were thinking, what could be a defining series for Paramount+. Halo always fit the bill but seeing it, we felt it would work.”
Nevins went on to say that, “It could be a defining show for a newish service that’s got all firepower of an entertainment corporation behind it.”
When it comes to the casting, 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.”
The first season will consist of 10-episodes and is scheduled to air in the first quarter of 2021. 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.
I’ve been looking forward to this project for years. It’s been in development for ten years, and it’s exciting to know that it’s eventually going to see the light of day.
Source: Deadline