Halo Halo TV Series Thread: This isn't the Red Flag we were hoping for.

[Battlegrinder]

So, Halo's getting a TV series, sort of. It's supposed to be some kind of alt-universe timeline thing, for reasons that upon viewing the trailer, become fairly obvious, there's a number of bits here that don't seem to really fit into the universe established by the rest of the franchise. A bit early to judge but.....I'm not really hyped for this one.

 

[Husky_Khan]

So, Halo's getting a TV series, sort of. It's supposed to be some kind of alt-universe timeline thing, for reasons that upon viewing the trailer, become fairly obvious, there's a number of bits here that don't seem to really fit into the universe established by the rest of the franchise. A bit early to judge but.....I'm not really hyped for this one.

This gives them creative room to butcher the franchise as needed to save the franchise.

 

[Captain X]

It's a minor thing, but you just have to love how they keep retconning Cortana's appearance.

 

[Battlegrinder]

It's a minor thing, but you just have to love how they keep retconning Cortana's appearance.

Well, in this case it's understandable. It's hard to sell an actress on the role when she asks about her costume and the producers just set a few cans of paint on the table.

 

[Captain X]

I mean, there are women out there that that wouldn't be a problem for, for one thing. And for another, she could have easily been CG. But the thing is, they've even been doing that in the games because of the "muh objectification" crowd.

 

[Battlegrinder]

One other thing that's jumped out at me post trailer is the tagline that's being used to promote the show, "Find the Halo, Win the war". Which combined with a few other bits, suggests someone badly misunderstood the premise of Halo.

The UNSC thought they could win the war very early on, before they really grasped what they were up against, before they knew they needed 3:1 odds to even have a chance in space, before thry understand just how relentless and inexhaustible the Covenant assault was. By the time the series seems to be set, late in the war, the UNSC had no hope of actually winning, they were busy putting together a desperate Hail Mary to just try and survive the war by negotiating a cease fire. It's odd to have someone talking like that in Halo, it's either very early in the war (such as my profile quote, which comes from the fall of Harvest) or a sign someone's cracked (such as Silva in The Flood).

 

[The Whispering Monk]

It also feels like they've changed the timeline.

Weren't all the other Spartans toast by the time HALO happened?

 

[Battlegrinder]

It also feels like they've changed the timeline.

The series is set in a different timeline, yes.

Weren't all the other Spartans toast by the time HALO happened?

Not exactly. When the Pillar of Autumn retreated after the battle of Reach, they believed that thr Master Chief was the only surviving active spartan, as the rest of them were on Reach*, or on the Autumn but clinically dead (you can actually see a display of her in cryo in the remastered version of CE).

As it happened a small number of Spartans did actually survive Reach and were later rescued, but no one not on Reach knew they were alive during the events of the first game, and were present on Earth during the events of Halo 2, but not 3, for complicated reasons.



Irritatingly, there was one other Spartan still alive and on Earth as of Halo 2: Maria 062, who retired from the military to raise a family and who's never been followed up on after her one appearance. And a series following her, trying to survive and protect her family on a Covenant occupied Earth, would be such a great and simple story to tell.





*Save for the 3 Spartans on Grey Team, who were out of contact with the UNSC behind enemy lines.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Oh hey... look one of the Directors of the Television series is the guy who directed the 2018 film Robin Hood, Otto Bathurst which is an adaption of the beloved story that I found to be very exceptional.

He also directed an episode of Black Mirror, which actually is a decent scifi series. But sadly the episode he directed was the first episode which was so bad and contrived IMHO that I almost didn't even give the rest of the series a chance. Squeal piggy!

 

[Captain X]

Apparently the showrunners have already quit the show:

 

[bullethead]

For whatever reason, CBSViacom has godawful luck with showrunners for live action scifi shows. They all either bail before the season's done, bail after the season's done, or get fired partway into the second season for being shitty to other employees.

That said, I wonder how much of that is simply not vetting people to see how enthusiastic they are to work with the franchise vs being shitty to deal with.

 

[Karmic Acumen]

Word on youtube is that the show will have a female lead and MC won't have the spotlight.



Explains everything if true, and these are the same guys who called Masters of the Universe.

 

[Battlegrinder]

Word on youtube is that the show will have a female lead and MC won't have the spotlight.

That's not surprising, people have been saying that MC is not really a great choice for a central protagonist for like 15 years, even since the idea of a halo movie or series was being floated.

 

[Bacle]

The series is set in a different timeline, yes.



Not exactly. When the Pillar of Autumn retreated after the battle of Reach, they believed that thr Master Chief was the only surviving active spartan, as the rest of them were on Reach*, or on the Autumn but clinically dead (you can actually see a display of her in cryo in the remastered version of CE).

As it happened a small number of Spartans did actually survive Reach and were later rescued, but no one not on Reach knew they were alive during the events of the first game, and were present on Earth during the events of Halo 2, but not 3, for complicated reasons.



Irritatingly, there was one other Spartan still alive and on Earth as of Halo 2: Maria 062, who retired from the military to raise a family and who's never been followed up on after her one appearance. And a series following her, trying to survive and protect her family on a Covenant occupied Earth, would be such a great and simple story to tell.





*Save for the 3 Spartans on Grey Team, who were out of contact with the UNSC behind enemy lines.

You forgot Red Team on the Spirit of Fire; yes, everyone thought the SoF was lost till they showed up at the Ark, but Red Team had to deal with the Flood long before Chief did.

 

[Battlegrinder]

You forgot Red Team on the Spirit of Fire; yes, everyone thought the SoF was lost till they showed up at the Ark, but Red Team had to deal with the Flood long before Chief did.

Right, I was going mostly off the Fall of Reach scene discussing spartans, forgot about red team and all the anime Spartans or whatever that showed up later in the franchise because Bungie never bothered keeping spartan numbers consistent.

Spartans are like Jedi, whenever there's only one of them left there's always actually a few more of them running around somewhere, not helping.

 

[Arlos]

I honestly think there is a lot of of potential for halo as a TV series/movies…Just not by the time of Cortana and Masterchief, which was already completely covered by the games.
A TV series showed us the war from the beginning of the war to it’s end would probably be more interesting if I am being honest, showing us the sheer struggle at the time, the way people dealt with it and how they desperately resisted the covenants, maybe show it in the form of war stories? Either follow some characters for a few episodes until they die, or maybe follow an ODST Regiment and it’s ship as they evolve through the war? With many characters dying and being replaced, mentalities changing as the war drag on, etc…

Well, that’s just my tought, this whole alternate timeline thing sound so lazy tough…

 

[bullethead]

To be fair, it's kind of hard to explain to people why the franchise is called "Halo" if you don't show any Halos.

That said, they could've shown baby Sangheili being shown hologram Halos or something as a lore dump, but that would require paying for a lot more CGI.

 

[Tiamat]

So, Halo's getting a TV series, sort of. It's supposed to be some kind of alt-universe timeline thing, for reasons that upon viewing the trailer, become fairly obvious, there's a number of bits here that don't seem to really fit into the universe established by the rest of the franchise. A bit early to judge but.....I'm not really hyped for this one.

I almost read this as: 'Dramatic Jedi Handwave' "This isn't the Halo You're Looking For."

 

[Husky_Khan]

Irritatingly, there was one other Spartan still alive and on Earth as of Halo 2: Maria 062, who retired from the military to raise a family and who's never been followed up on after her one appearance. And a series following her, trying to survive and protect her family on a Covenant occupied Earth, would be such a great and simple story to tell.

That said, they could've shown baby Sangheili being shown hologram Halos or something as a lore dump,

🧐

I found my original idea for a Halo TV Series. 😎

 

[Captain X]

For whatever reason, CBSViacom has godawful luck with showrunners for live action scifi shows. They all either bail before the season's done, bail after the season's done, or get fired partway into the second season for being shitty to other employees.

That said, I wonder how much of that is simply not vetting people to see how enthusiastic they are to work with the franchise vs being shitty to deal with.

Well, what do you expect out of people hired for ideological purity (and/or race and/or sex) rather than competence and/or professionalism? This is exactly the outcome from that mindset.

That's not surprising, people have been saying that MC is not really a great choice for a central protagonist for like 15 years, even since the idea of a halo movie or series was being floated.

I disagree with these people. IMO, Master Chief and Cortana would play pretty well off of each other. Primal showed us that dialog isn't needed to tell a compelling story, so the Chief could be as short-spoken as he was in the games, with Cortana doing all the real narrating that is necessary. All that is really needed is the will to do a good job at adapting that story.