But what else are we up to? We are deep in post-production and finishing on the show. Building a world at the scope and scale of the Halo universe means extensive VFX which is an intensive but awesome process and arguably my favorite part. Melding our sci-fi elements with real people and environments and ensuring they feel grounded and believable is a very different endeavor from creating the virtual environments of our games.
You got a little taste of the work we've done on the VFX front with our first look (which we break down below) and you will see WAY more on Sunday, which will be a monumental task to explore in our next blog. Suffice it to say, you will see many familiar Halo elements – some are exactly as you've seen before and some you will see through the lens of the incredible creatives involved with the show, but all should resoundingly say Halo to you.
Releasing a trailer at this stage means that not all is completely final, and we will continue to refine and tweak until we are yelled at to put our pencils down, but we are excited to show you where we are.
We'll continue to keep you updated and hope to start revealing some more peeks behind the scenes soon! In the meantime, we want to share more details with you behind the intent and principles behind the Silver Timeline and what that means for Halo.
We hope you enjoy the ride and we're excited for what is to come! Thanks for coming on yet another epic Halo journey with us…"
THE SILVER TIMELINE
This brings us neatly to the main topic of our first Silver blog, the 'Silver Timeline' itself.
'Silver' is the name of the central Spartan fireteam, and, of course, a nod to the 'silver screen' too – naturally, the name stuck. The Silver Timeline is a unique vision of the Halo universe that contains and embraces many key elements of the core canon that has spanned the last two decades, but with relevant contextual and narrative details that diverge in ways appropriate (and necessary) to the storytelling opportunities presented by the TV medium and our collaboration with creative partners.
To tell the best Halo stories we can, we want to protect the integrity, simplicity, and future of the core canon, but also not be limited by it when faced with the realities of a new medium and the process of production. As a result, we made the decision to set the Halo television series in an authentic, but independent timeline.
I'm fortunate to be joined by Franchise Creative Director, Frank O'Connor, to delve deeper into this unique vision of the Halo universe.
ALEX: Thank you for joining us today, Frank! Let's start from the top. Broadly, what is the Silver Timeline and what does it mean for Halo?
FRANK: "We've been working on the idea of a Halo TV series for a long time, but one of the first things we realized when we started working with writers and directors was that there were some real dangers of mapping a totally different medium – games – to a linear narrative format, TV or movie for that matter.
Not just because of the differences in approach and perspective that make sense for each medium, but also because we want to make sure that we're not forcing either the game or the show to go in completely unnatural directions.
By the same token, Halo's core canon is extremely important to us and our fans, and we wanted to think of the simplest and most productive way to make sure we didn't 'break' either medium by trying to force square pegs into round holes. The idea of the 'Silver Timeline' kept resurfacing throughout that process. We could compare the choice we landed on to other IPs, but that might set faulty or negative expectations and would likely oversimplify our intent.
Basically, we want to use the existing Halo lore, history, canon, and characters wherever they make sense for a linear narrative, but also separate the two distinctly so that we don't invalidate the core canon or do unnatural things to force a first-person video game into an ensemble TV show. The game canon and its extended lore in novels, comics, and other outlets is core, original, and will continue unbroken for as long as we make Halo games.
To be clear: these will be two parallel, VERY similar, but ultimately separate timelines whose main events and characters will intersect and align throughout their very different cadences.
The TV show timeline – the 'Silver Timeline' – is grounded in the universe, characters and events of what's been established in core canon, but will differ in subtle and not so subtle ways in order to tell a grounded, human story, set in the profoundly established Halo universe. Where differences and branches arise, they will do so in ways that make sense for the show, meaning that while many events, origins, character arcs, and outcomes will map to the Halo story fans know, there will be surprises, differences, and twists that will run parallel, but not identically to core canon.
A simplistic example of both the kind of difference – and an underlying reason for that difference – will be apparent from the first episode, that the 'coincidence' of Chief and Cortana simply stumbling across the Halo ring is gone. Many of the same established events will drive the story to the same places and outcomes, but how they get there will feel markedly different, but logical to the events described. This means that for deep lore fans, there will be familiarity and surprise, but newcomers will end up with a very similar understanding of the characters' origins, ambitions, and motivations – as well as places, names, and ideas."
In summary: Core canon will continue, unimpeded and unfettered by differences and divergences in the Halo television series. Likewise, the Silver Timeline will continue to draw from and explore existing elements, events, relationships, and more from the core canon, evolving in-parallel while retaining the themes that serve as pillars of Halo's identity.
Taking steps to develop a complex hierarchy to 'grade' the canonicity of elements of the show was obviously not desirable, and so having two distinct branches – core canon and the Silver Timeline – allows them to be clearly distinct and self-contained, without friction that might affect the grand, compelling universe we've come to know and love over the last two decades.
Exploring the themes, characters, and events of the Halo universe with this new lens enabled us to ensure that neither core canon nor the television show had to be constrained, distorted, or retconned, instead opening greater possibilities and providing clarity of intent that would have otherwise led Halo fans to develop specific expectations about what would be 'loyally' adapted and what wouldn't.
Our twenty-year history has given us a wealth of amazing ingredients to deliver on fan-favorite characters, ideas, and moments, while also retaining the ability to surprise with a new spin on things. The spirit of Halo is retained and accentuated in exciting new ways while telling a new story from a greater variety of perspectives.
As a result of this accord, we hope this will be a series that resonates with Halo fans (casual, hardcore, and everything in-between), general gamers, sci-fi and action lovers, and people who enjoy shows with high-stakes character drama.
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