Halo (TV Series)

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About

Halo is a military science-fiction series based on the video game series of the same name. The live-action TV adaptation follows the story of genetically augmented super-soldier Master Chief during the 26th-century war between the United Nations Space Command and a military alliance of alien races known as the Covenant. The series premiered on Paramount+ on March 24th, 2022, and will consist of nine episodes for season one, with season two already confirmed for future release.

History

The series was originally announced in 2013 with Steven Spielberg attached as a producer.^[1] The show, initially set to premiere in 2015, remained in development limbo for many years as Rupert Wyatt, and later Otto Bathurst, was invited to produce. The casting took place between April and August 2019,^[2] with actor Pablo Schreiber cast as Master Chief, the main protagonist of the game series and TV adaptation. Natacha McElhone was originally cast as Cortana, but in 2020, the character was recast^[3] with Jen Taylor, the voice and mo-cap actor for Cortana in all Halo games.

On February 24th, 2021, the series was moved from Showtime to the Paramount+ streaming service. On November 15th, 2021, the teaser trailer for the show premiered,^[4] followed by two trailers^[5]^[6] released on December 9th, 2021, and January 30th, 2022 (shown below, left and right).

Cortana Reveal

On January 30th, 2022, the second official trailer for the series premiered, gathering over 6.7 million views on Twitter^[7] and 2.4 million views on YouTube^[6] in one day. In the trailer, the character Cortana, an AI construct, portrayed by Jen Taylor, was revealed. Unlike the video games, the character's appearance was more human rather than a blue-tinted (or purple-tinted) hologram (clip shown below).

The character's appearance sparked jokes and debates on social media, with some users asking for changes made to improve the character's appearance (examples shown below).

Developments

Variety Interview

In an interview with Variety^[8] magazine published on March 16th, 2022, staff members of the show working as writers, actors and showrunners were interviewed about various aspects of the upcoming series. The interview was tweeted^[9] by Variety on the 16th, earning over 600 likes for the thread.

The two most viral topics from the interview were popularized due to concern and outrage among fans — the first being the statement detailed in the title of the article that each episode cost roughly $10 million to make. Instagram^[10] news outlet RapTV posted about the statement on March 19th, earning roughly 207,200 likes in two days.

The other notable statement made in the interview was from the series' showrunner Steven Kane who admitted "We didn’t look at the game. We didn’t talk about the game. We talked about the characters and the world. So I never felt limited by it being a game." The news that the show's writers hadn't played the game sparked outrage online among some. For instance, on March 18th, Twitter^[11] user JakeSucky posted a tweet that captioned a screenshot of Variety's tweet with, "Mannnnn spending $10 million per episode for a Halo TV series and having the balls to say you didn't even look at the game sure is something lol," earning roughly 8,700 likes in three days (shown below).

On March 20th, YouTuber Cr1TiKaL posted a video titled, "Halo TV Show Seems Horrible," where he covered the development regarding the ill-prepared writing team, earning roughly 825,400 views in one day (shown below).

Pilot Premiere

Master Chief Face Reveal

On March 24th, 2022, the Halo show debuted on Paramount+ with its first episode launching on the streaming platform. In one of the scenes, Master Chief's face was revealed when he took off his helmet. Master Chief is a character within the game notorious for never taking off his helmet, so inherently, the reveal sparked multiple reactions.

For instance, on March 24th, Redditor netol19 posted a meme to /r/Halo^[12] in which they "fixed" Master Chief's face reveal, showing in a four-panel succession Chief taking off his helmet only to reveal another helmet underneath. The meme (shown below, left) received roughly 5,100 upvotes in less than a day. Also on the 24th, Twitter^[13] user DumbSMTFan replaced Master Chief's face with Elliot Rodger's, earning over 100 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Other Reactions

Another common meme reaction to the pilot's Premiere was when multiple Redditors exploited screenshots of the odd haricuts on display in the universe. For instance, Redditor^[14] lefty2264 stated, "Guys, could we talk about these haircuts?" sharing a screenshot of one of them and earning over 900 upvotes in one day (shown below, left). Also on the 24th, Redditor^[15] flawless__cowboy shared a meme that compared one of the mullet-esque haircuts to Bernie from Sesame Street, earning roughly 1,000 upvotes in one day (shown below, right).

Additionally, multiple memes related to the premiere were posted to the Facebook group Halo Plasmaposting starting on March 24th. For instance, Facebook^[16] user Matthew Klanfer posted a meme that exploited a Withered Wojak template, cracking a joke about the Paramount+ series not even coming close to the Halo 2 anniversary cutscenes by Blur Studios, earning over 370 likes in one day (shown below, left). Facebook^[17] user Tyler Ingle shared a meme too that displayed, in contrast, a positive affirmation about the show's release, using the Two Guys On A Bus template and earning over 220 likes in the same amount of time (shown below, right).