Halo TV Show Introduces The Hunters’ True Look That The Games Ignore

Warning! SPOILERS for Halo episode 3.

Paramount’s new Halo series features the Covenant’s massive Hunters, albeit in a form that the Halo games largely ignore. Known as the Lekgolo, these aliens are a particularly unique race amongst the various species that make up the Covenant. Featured as part of an infiltration mission led by the Covenant’s sole human member, the Lekgolo prove themselves to be quite the formidable force with their surprising debut outside of their classic armor.

In Halo episode 3, Makee (played by Charlie Murphy) has embarked on a mission to infiltrate the UNSC and find “The Demon,” the Covenant’s name for Master Chief. The only human amongst the various alien races that make up the Covenant, Makee is what’s known as a “Blessed One“: a human with the ability to activate and interact with Forerunner technology. Seeing the relics the Forerunners left behind as holy, the Covenant elected to spare Makee’s life given their inability to activate the artifacts, despite their worship. As such, Makee is incredibly valuable to their Great Journey. For this reason, it makes sense that the Covenant Prophets sent Hunters to join her on her mission to find Master Chief and the Forerunner artifact he discovered.

In the Halo games, Hunters are featured as large armor-clad hulks wielding assault canons and durable shields. However, this is not the true form of the Lekgolo. The Lekgolo are actually a colony species of worms that combine to create a “Mgalekgolo”(otherwise known as a Hunter). Sharing a collective hive mind, the worms operate as a single consciousness, arming themselves with weapons provided by Halo‘s alien Covenant while being deployed in pairs. This is exclusively how they’re depicted in the games. However, short of a brief shot featuring the leg of a Mgalekgolo in Paramount’s Halo, the Hunters are seen attacking the UNSC outside of their traditional armor, operating as a swarm of Lekgolo that quickly overpowers the soldiers who thought they were rescuing a victim of the Covenant.

Considering the tease before the UNSC ship was attacked with the armored leg, it seems likely that the Hunters’ more classic form will be featured in full as the series progresses. Being the strongest and arguably the Covenant’s most impressive soldiers, it stands to reason that Paramount would want to build anticipation before showing them off (most likely in a battle with Pablo Schreiber’s Master Chief himself). In their first encounter, attacking a collection of multiple Lekgolo worms rendered the UNSC vulnerable, as they were taken completely by surprise by the Hunter’s true form.

At any rate, seeing the true form of the Hunters is certainly an exciting difference between the new live-action series and the Halo video games. However, here’s hoping the Hunters’ more classic look will be featured as well in the episodes to come. Master Chief facing a pair of armored Hunters would undoubtedly be one of the series’ most epic action sequences, an exciting example of how the series could continue bringing the games to life.

Halo releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.

About The Author

Kevin Erdmann
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Kevin Erdmann is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers. With a major in Cinema Studies and a minor in Comics and Cartoon Studies from the UofO, Kevin is pretty sure he’s writing for the right site. While Kevin is a huge Marvel fan, he also loves Batman because he’s Batman and is a firm believer that Han shot first. Disney also shares a big part of his fan patronage. Kevin lives in Oregon with his wonderful wife and sinister cat who is no doubt currently plotting his demise.

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