The latest piece of trivia about the upcoming Halo television series on Paramount Plus might end up upsetting a lot of diehard Master Chief purists.
In a recent chat with IGN, executive producer Kiki Wolfkill revealed that their upcoming live-action adaptation will actually show the face under Master Chief Petty Officer John-117’s iconic helmet. Apparently, this decision is emotionally relevant to the kind of story the show is trying to tell.
“I think we set out to tell a character story and a personal story,” She said. “And once we really got into what that story was, it became clear that you really needed to see the person in the armor and under the helmet.”
As Halo fans will know, one of the deliberate mysteries in the narrative of Microsoft’s sci-fi first-person shooter was Master Chief’s identity and looks. The character has never shown his face across the six Halo instalments and their spinoffs, which has actually helped elevate him from being just a soldier. It seems, though, that the live-action show is finally unravelling the legend after more than 20 years.
In fact, this might just be the biggest deviation they’ve made to the story thus far and a change that’ll not sit well with a lot of fans.
McCaffrey further reaffirmed that we’ll definitely see the true Master Chief, saying:
“You will see his face. For some people, it’s been a moment 20 years in the making, and for other people, it is something that feels very hard to imagine. We absolutely respect both sides of that fence, those who really want to see Chief’s face and those who really don’t. But for the nature of this story, it felt really important to connect with the Master Chief in a different way, and that meant showing the face.”
From a storytelling perspective, that makes a lot of sense, up to the point you remember that something like The Mandalorian has already proven you don’t need to show your protagonist in order to establish a deep emotional connection with the audience. Hopefully, the producers know what they’re doing and this turns out for the better.
Halo is currently slated for a March 24 release on Paramount Plus.