Halo Show Star Talks Pressure Of Bringing Master Chief To Life

The star of the upcoming Halo TV show has opened up about the pressures of bringing the series’ main character Master Chief to life. One of the most successful media franchises of all time, Halo started life as a first-person shooter video game, originally released on the Xbox back in 2001 under the name Halo: Combat Evolved. The success of the game led to two follow-ups, with Halo 2 being released in 2004 and 2007’s Halo 3 rounding off the original trilogy. The game series follows an interstellar war between humans and an alien alliance known as The Covenant, focusing specifically on the adventures and experiences of Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, a supersoldier known as a Spartan, and referred to by his rank, Master Chief.

The Halo franchise has been hugely successful globally, with more than 81 million games sold as of February 2021, and the sixth main installment in the series, Halo Infinite, released its beta last year. Due to the continued success of the games, the franchise has expanded to other media, spawning novels, comic books, animated shows, and feature films, and is considered to be Xbox’s flagship game series. Following the cancellation of a planned Halo live-action movie back in 2007, there has been an interest in creating some sort of live-action adaptation of the series, and the TV show began development back in 2015, with the series officially announced and greenlit in June 2018.

Actor Pablo Schreiber, who will portray the Master Chief in the series, spoke with THR about the challenges he faced when coming to grips with such an iconic character, especially one so shrouded in mystery. One of the defining features of the character is the fact that he is portrayed in the games as a man of very few words, as well as being largely faceless, a helmeted surrogate whose persona could be readily adopted by any player. This proved effective in the game series but made portraying the character in the show decidedly more challenging. Read Schreiber’s comments below:

“There’s this expectation because a huge portion of the audience has played the game believing they are the Master Chief. And now here I am, attempting to play it. This is a 180-degree turn. It’s a very tight box, especially early in the series, trying to find the sweet spot of restraint and figure out this guy’s inner life.”

Video game adaptations are nothing new these days, though they tend to be more commonplace on the big screen than the small. Taking on a role as iconic as the Master Chief is no easy feat and Schreiber has his work cut out bringing life and presence to a character known to many, but still remains an enigma. This is an ambitious role, but anticipation is high, and, with Collider hosting a special Halo screening to air the first two episodes of the show, there is every chance that engagement is very high when the series is finally available to stream in full.

Choosing to portray such a well-known character in a brand new medium certainly comes with its fair share of risk, but the early signs suggest there is cause for optimism. It has been a long, hard road in development hell for Halo, and the fact that the show has finally arrived will no doubt come as a relief to a lot of fans. Those who are still skeptical about the show and Schreiber’s portrayal should be buoyed by the fact that Halo season 2 has already been renewed before a single episode has even been streamed. Early comparisons with The Mandalorian should also be viewed as a good thing, and the show could well end up running multiple seasons and becoming a huge success for Paramount+.

Source: THR

About The Author