Halo

Halo
Genre	Action-adventure Drama Military science fiction
Based on	Halo by: Xbox Game Studios
Developed by	Kyle Killen Steven Kane
Written by	Kyle Killen Steven Kane
Starring	Pablo Schreiber Shabana Azmi Natasha Culzac Olive Gray Yerin Ha Bentley Kalu Kate Kennedy Charlie Murphy Danny Sapani Jen Taylor Bokeem Woodbine Natascha McElhone
Theme music composer	Sean Callery
Composer	Sean Callery
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	9
Production
Executive producer	Steven Spielberg Steven Kane Kiki Wolfkill Frank O'Connor Bonnie Ross Justin Falvey Darryl Frank Otto Bathurst Toby Leslie Kyle Killen Scott Pennington
Producer	Sheila Hockin Charlotte Keating Michael Armbruster
Cinematography	Karl Walter Lindenlaub Eric Kress
Editor	Aaron Marshall Dan Briceno Geoff Ashenhurst
Running time	40–59 minutes
Production company	Showtime Networks 343 Industries Amblin Television Chapter Eleven One Big Picture
Distributor	ViacomCBS Global Distribution Microsoft (co-distribution)
Budget	$90–200 million
Release
Original network	Paramount+
Original release	March 24, 2022 – present

Halo is a live-action science fiction television series based on the Halo video game franchise. The series will focus on the 26th-century war between the United Nations Space Command and the alien Covenant. The series stars Yerin Ha, Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone, Charlie Murphy, Jen Taylor, Shabana Azmi, Bokeem Woodbine, Kate Kennedy, Natasha Culzac, and Bentley Kalu. It is set to be directed by Otto Bathurst.

Pablo Schreiber and Jen Taylor star as Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 and Cortana, the latter reprising her role from the video game series and are joined by Natascha McElhone, Yerin Ha, Charlie Murphy, Shabana Azmi, Bokeem Woodbine, Kate Kennedy, Natasha Culzac, and Bentley Calu. Development for a Halo television series began in 2013. Killen was hired in June 2018, with the series officially announced with a 9-episode order for Paramount+. Filming began in Ontario, Canada in October 2019, although post-production for the first five episodes were affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming eventually resumed in Budapest, Hungary in February 2021.

It is scheduled to premiere on Paramount+ in early 2022.. On the other side, Halo is set to premiere on March 24, 2022, on Paramount+. The series was renewed for a second season, ahead of its series premiere. A portion of the series showed at SXSW on March 14, 2022.

Premise

Halo is set to follow "an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future."

Cast

See also: List of Halo characters

Main cast

• Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, a towering supersoldier known as a "Spartan"
• Natascha McElhone as Dr. Catherine Halsey, a scientist for the UNSC.
• Yerin Ha as Kwan Ha
• Charlie Murphy as Makee
• Shabana Azmi as Admiral Margaret Parangosky, Director of ONI.
• Bokeem Woodbine as Soren-066
• Kate Kennedy as Kai-125
• Natasha Culzac as Riz-028
• Bentley Kalu as Vannak-134

Voice cast

• Jen Taylor as Cortana, an artificial intelligence (AI) construct

Episodes

Season	Episodes	Original airing (Debut)	Original airing (Final)
1	9	March 24, 2022	May 19, 2022

Season 1

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	Contact	Otto Bathurst	Kyle Killen and Steven Kane	March 24, 2022
In 2552, the Covenant attack an Insurrectionist outpost on the planet Madrigal, massacring everyone except for teenager Kwan Ha before the Spartan unit Silver Team intervenes. In a nearby cave system, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 discovers and retrieves a Forerunner keystone that reacts to his touch, displaying mysterious symbols and unlocking some of his sealed childhood memories. A surviving Covenant Elite witnesses this and reports it to the Prophet of Mercy at the Covenant capital, High Charity. On Reach, Dr. Catherine Halsey clashes with Admiral Parangosky over their methods and Halsey's work on a new type of AI based on her own brain patterns. After Kwan refuses to cooperate with the UNSC, John is ordered to execute her. He defies the order and rebels, earning Kwan's trust by taking off his armored helmet when she threatens him with his rifle. UNSC Captain Jacob Keyes orders John to be taken into custody; John touches the keystone again, which disables power in the base while restoring power to his ship, allowing him and Kwan to escape. In the process, John discovers that he had drawn the keystone as a child, suggesting that he has a past connection to it.
2	Unbound	Otto Bathurst	Kyle Killen and Steven Kane	March 31, 2022
In a flashback, a young John catches Soren, a fellow Spartan, fleeing and allows him to escape. In the present, John takes Kwan and the keystone to the Rubble, an Insurrectionist base carved out of a series of broken asteroids. There, they reunite with Soren, who is now an Insurrectionist leader. On Reach, Halsey faces scrutiny over John's actions but promises a solution to the problem. Captain Keyes dispatches Silver Team to bring back John, the keystone, and Kwan. On High Charity, the surviving Elite from Madrigal reveals to the Prophets and their ward, a human named Makee, that John activated the relic; despite hesitance from the Prophet of Mercy, Makee insists that she can recover the keystone herself. Back on the Rubble, Soren introduces John to Reth, a deranged hermit who was once held captive by the Covenant. Reth forces John to reveal his ability to activate the keystone and hints that it leads to an alien superweapon of unparalleled destructive power. Shaken by the experience, John leaves Kwan with Soren and surrenders to Silver Team. He is consoled by Halsey, who promises a new beginning for him and awakens a flash clone of herself to create Cortana.
3	Emergence	Roel Reiné	Kyle Killen and Steven Kane	April 7, 2022
In a flashback, a young Makee is discovered and inadvertently rescued from torture by the Covenant whose Forerunner device reacts to her. In the present, Makee leads a raid on a UNSC corvette in an attempt to find the location of the Madrigal keystone. With the ship's data erased, Makee travels to Madrigal where the keystone was originally discovered; she leaves transmissions of her orders behind. On the Rubble, Kwan convinces Soren to take her to Madrigal to reunite with Insurrectionists loyal to her father in exchange for a payment of deuterium. On Reach, Parangosky orders Miranda Keyes to study the keystone behind Halsey's back. Halsey completes the procedure of creating Cortana and places her in John's brain via a neural implant. Cortana, following Halsey's instructions, helps John remove a pellet that suppresses his emotions. After John explores some of the cityscape on Reach, he returns to base and touches the keystone again, where he has memories of his parents, his home on Eridanus II, and drawings of the Madrigal keystone and a complementary keystone. Convinced that the second keystone is located on Eridanus II, John and Halsey travel to Eridanus II to investigate.
4	Homecoming	Roel Reiné	Justine Juel Gillmer and Steven Kane	April 14, 2022
On Reach, Kai-125 removes her emotional suppressor pellet and helps Miranda analyze the Madrigal keystone; Kai and Keyes discover that the keystone is related to a "Sacred Ring" that the Covenant call "Halo". On Madrigal, Kwan discovers her father's former allies refuse to help, fearing the Covenant and new UNSC-supported governor Vinsher Grath. Soren's ship is discovered and confiscated; Kwan goes to her aunt for help and learns of a mystical tribe that may have answers for her. Soren and Kwan escape Grath's troops and head for the spaceport to leave the planet. On Eridanus II, John, Halsey, and Cortana examine John's old home and find numerous drawings of the Forerunner keystones. After using Cortana to help recreate his home, John has memories of the location of the second keystone, but also his childhood and a visit from Halsey while his parents were alive.
5	Reckoning	Jonathan Liebesman	Richard E. Robbins and Steven Kane	April 21, 2022
On Madrigal, Soren ties up Kwan while he goes to find a way off the planet, but Kwan frees herself and steals Soren's pistol and vehicle. On Eridanus II, the UNSC is preparing to secure the keystone and take it back to Reach. As the UNSC is testing the keystone, it releases energy that alerts Makee and the Covenant to its location. As John continues to question his past, he touches the keystone and has clear memories of Halsey and ONI troops kidnapping him as a child and replacing him with a flash clone of himself; in a rage, he attempts to kill Halsey before Cortana disables him using their mental link. As John awakens and contemplates his newfound knowledge, a Covenant corvette arrives and launches a surprise attack. Despite the efforts of Silver Team, the UNSC suffer heavy casualties, Kai is severely wounded, and the Covenant successfully retrieve the Eridanus II keystone and withdraw. As the Covenant corvette escapes the planet, a drop pod containing Makee is left behind.
6	Solace	Jonathan Liebesman	Silka Luisa and Steven Kane	April 28, 2022
The surviving UNSC forces of the Eridanus II mission return to Reach. The UNSC takes Makee into their custody; although she claims to have been a prisoner of the Covenant, the UNSC does not trust her, considering that the Covenant are not known to take human prisoners. When John interrogates Makee, she reveals that they are both "blessed" with the ability to activate Forerunner technology. Makee says the likely location of the second keystone is a Covenant holy planet in the Aspero star system. Due to John and Kai's behavior following their removal of their emotional suppressors, Parangosky replaces Halsey as leader of all ongoing ONI projects with Miranda. John confronts Halsey and learns the true origins of the Spartan program: kidnapping and conscripting children to serve as supersoldiers, replacing them with terminally ill flash clones to alleviate suspicions, and subjecting them to augmentations with risk of deformation or death; John shares this with a recovering Kai. When John tests the Madrigal keystone once more, despite warnings of the possible ill effects it has on his health, he and Makee simultaneously have arrhythmias and seizures, while also sharing a vision of being on a Halo ringworld together.
7	Inheritance	Jessica Lowrey	Steven Kane	May 5, 2022
While Soren, having returned to the Rubble, engages in space piracy against the UNSC, Kwan ventures into the deserts of Madrigal to track down a reclusive tribe of mystic nomads, hoping for answers about her family's true purpose. The mystics reveal that when Kwan's ancestors settled on Madrigal, they were charged by a Forerunner AI with protecting a Forerunner portal that resides somewhere on the planet. Kwan is rejoined by Soren, who came back in order to fulfill his promise to John to look over her, just before the outpost is surrounded by Vinsher Grath and his troops, looking to kill Kwan for the threat that she poses to his power. Despite being heavily outnumbered, Kwan insists upon fighting back. While Soren holds off Grath's forces, Kwan detonates the outpost's power supply. The explosion kills Grath and his men; Kwan then pays Soren with money recovered from the outpost's supplies to honor their original deal. The two part on amicable terms, with Kwan determined to continue her mission and find the portal and take her position as its protector.
8	Allegiance	Jonathan Liebesman	Justine Juel Gillmer and Steven Kane	May 12, 2022
John begins to view Makee as a potential ally following their shared visions of the Halo, despite the continued doubts of the UNSC as to her loyalty. John learns the Covenant seek the Halo rings to begin their transcendent "Great Journey". John is able to convince the UNSC to let Makee test the keystone under Miranda's supervision. John and Makee have sex; noting John's kindness and similarity to her, Makee begins to reconsider her loyalties. Halsey initiates remote protocols that disable all comms within the UNSC base and places Spartans Riz and Vannak under her direct control, ordering them to capture John, Makee, and the keystone; Cortana chooses at the last second to warn John instead. Riz and Vannak restrain Kai and attempt to fight John, and Miranda uncovers transmissions of Makee leading the attack on the UNSC corvette. After UNSC troopers restrain and taser her (bringing back memories of her youth), she reaffirms her loyalty to the Covenant, frees herself, and touches the keystone, sending shockwaves throughout the UNSC base, before saying her goodbyes to John via another shared vision.
9	Transcendence	Jonathan Liebesman	Steven Kane	May 19, 2022
While Makee escapes Reach, Silver Team enters into a standoff that is only defused when Captain Keyes arrives and reveals to Vannak and Riz the truth about the Spartan program. Kai helps to apprehend Halsey, but Miranda realizes that the "Halsey" that was captured was actually a flash clone of the real Halsey, who secretly escapes from Reach. With Cortana's help, John deduces the location of the Covenant planet, Raas Kkhotskha, and leads Silver Team on a mission to recover the Forerunner keystones. On Raas Kkhotskha, Silver Team engages Covenant forces. When John is overwhelmed, Makee activates the combined keystones in order to generate a blast to save John, generating a star map leading to Halo, and inadvertently locking John into stasis. When John tries and fails to talk Makee down using another shared vision, Kai frees John from his trance by shooting Makee, shutting down the keystone before it can show Halo's location. After John takes a fatal hit, Cortana assumes control of John, rescues Silver Team, and escapes with them and both of the keystones. As they depart, Kai asks John if it is really him behind the helmet, but he only glances at her, wordlessly.

Production

Development

The television series had gone through development hell with a planned release in 2015 with Steven Spielburg as producer, later changed to a 2019 release with Rupert Wyatt as producer, then a 2020 release, the show is now currently planned to air in 2022 with Otto Bathurst as producer.

On May 21, 2013, Steven Spielberg was attached in executive producing a television series based on the video game franchise Halo, distributed by Xbox Entertainment Studios and Spielberg's company Amblin Television. As of August 2015, the series has still been in active development.

On June 28, 2018, Showtime was given a 10-episode series order. Kyle Killen was set to be showrunner, writer and executive producer, while Rupert Wyatt was attached as director and executive producer. On August 12, it was announced that Master Chief would be the main lead of the series and that the series would tell a new story from the video games while respecting its canon at the same time. On December 3, Wyatt stepped down as director and EP due to scheduling conflicts. He was replaced by Otto Bathurst in February 2019. On March 18, 2019, Steven Kane was added as co-showrunner alongside Killen.Template:Cn On February 24, 2021, the series was moved from Showtime to Paramount+.

Casting

From April-August 2019, the cast for the series was announced, with Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief. He was joined by Yerin Ha, Natascha McElhone, Bokeem Woodbine, Shabana Azmi, Bentley Kalu, Natasha Culzac and Kate Kennedy. In November 2020, Jen Taylor replaced McElhone as Cortana.

Filming

Principle photography commenced October 2019. In 2019, the series spent over $40 million on production costs. The five filmed episodes were re-edited under the coronavirus shutdown, with production on the sixth episode and reshoots being planned in Ontario, Canada.

Release

The series is expected to debut on Paramount+ in early 2022.

External Links

• Official website
• Halo Wiki
• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_(TV_series)

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