The Halo TV series’ first look is here. On Monday at Xbox’s 20th anniversary celebration, Microsoft unveiled a 15-second teaser trailer for the upcoming Halo series — set to premiere in early 2022 on Paramount+ in the US, and Voot Select in India — based on the popular gaming franchise of the same name. The Halo TV series first look gives us a very brief glimpse at Master Chief, the game’s Spartan supersoldier and protagonist played here by Pablo Schreiber, who is known for his work on HBO’s The Wire, American Gods, and Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black.
Halo teaser trailer opens by showing the battle-scarred back of Master Chief, which indicates that he’s had multiple surgeries and been put back together over the years. Cut to a shot of the Master Chief armour and his 117 number, before we see the back of Schreiber’s bald head as he puts on the famous helmet. As the Halo TV series first look jump cuts to the front, Cortana’s (Jen Taylor) —the in-game AI whose name was later used as Microsoft’s voice assistant — voice beams in to say: “Hello, Master Chief.” Martin O’Donnell & Michael Salvatori’s Halo theme plays us out over the title card.
In addition to Schreiber in the lead and Taylor reprising her voice role of Cortana, the Halo TV series stars Natascha McElhone (Californication) as United Nations Space Command (UNSC) scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey who created the Spartan-II project that Master Chief is part of, Korean-Australian actress Yerin Ha (Reef Break) as new character Kwan Ha, and Irish actress Charlie Murphy (Love/Hate) as new character Makee.
There are roles also for Indian screen legend Shabana Azmi as UNSC intelligence service Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) director Admiral Margaret Parangosky, Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo) as privateer and Master Chief’s old friend Soren-066, Olive Gray (Half Moon Investigations) as UNSC officer Miranda Keyes, and Danny Sapani (Penny Dreadful) as UNSC Captain Jacob Keyes.
Kyle Killen (Lone Star) and Steven Kane (The Last Ship) developed the Halo TV series, which has seen some behind-the-scenes turbulence. While the Killen and Kane were set to be co-showrunners on Halo season 1, Killen left prior to the start of production. Kane became lead showrunner but opted to leave himself after post-production work was completed on the first season. Moreover, the first five episodes were re-edited during the first global COVID-19 pandemic lockdown last year. None of this bodes well for the Halo TV series.
Otto Bathurst (Peaky Blinders), Jonathan Liebesman (Battle: Los Angeles), M. J. Bassett (Deathwatch), Roel Reiné (Washington), and Jet Wilkinson (Warrior Nun) served as directors on the first season of the Halo TV series. Killen, Kane, and Bathurst are also executive producers on the Halo TV series alongside Steven Spielberg, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Kiki Wolfkill, Frank O’Connor, Bonnie Ross, Karen Richards, Toby Leslie, and Scott Pennington. The Halo TV series is a production of Amblin Television, 343 Industries, Showtime, One Big Picture, and Chapter Eleven.
Halo is slated to premiere in early 2022 on Voot Select and Paramount+.
Coming to
- Release Date 24 March 2022
- Genre Sci-Fi
- Cast
Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone, Yerin Ha, Charlie Murphy, Charlie Murphy, Jen Taylor, Shabana Azmi, Bokeem Woodbine, Kate Kennedy, Natasha Culzac, Bentley Calu, Danny Sapani
- Director Otto Bathurst, Jonathan Liebesman, M. J. Bassett, Roel Reiné, Jet Wilkinson
- Producer Steven Spielberg, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Steven Kane, Kyle Killen, Otto Bathurst, Kiki Wolfkill, Frank O’Connor, Bonnie Ross, Karen Richards, Toby Leslie, Scott Pennington
- Production Amblin Television, 343 Industries, Showtime, Showtime, One Big Picture, Chapter Eleven
