The folks at Paramount have been heavily criticized for the way they depicted Master Chief in the live-action adaptation of Halo. But dwell on these controversial changes however much we may, there’s no changing what path the television series has chosen to walk.
And regardless of what we say about his part in it, Pablo Schreiber is completely committed to bringing the Spartan lead to life for the foreseeable future. The actor recently had a chat with SFX Magazine, where he explained that all those changes that made long-time fans of Halo uncomfortable were supposed to serve exactly that purpose.
“’The process of the first season was kind of breaking that relationship that people had with Chief, of knowing and recognizing him as themselves,’ he said. ‘We knew going into it that it was going to be a slightly uncomfortable experience for many viewers because of how long they’ve lived with this paradigm of Chief. But the idea is, for a long-form television series, hopefully, that discomfort of the first season and the breaking of the paradigm will pay off long term in the relationship that you’ll get to have with this guy.’”
The idea was to introduce a new Master Chief, then — which, in hindsight, the show has done successfully, as begrudgingly as some diehard enthusiasts might admit it.
Schreiber’s co-star Natascha McElhone recently told us that Halo will start shooting season 2 in August, so if all goes according to plan, the series could be back for another run as early as the second quarter of 2023.