Lol oke. Sorry dude it was never gonna happen. You get MC in your tv show.
The Halo TV series “may shift dates, locations, or ethnicity of characters”
- Thread starter Cranster
- Start date
Lol oke. Sorry dude it was never gonna happen. You get MC in your tv show.
Very lovely and informative back and forth defending the need to have the most boring character in gaming be the center point of the TV show!
It's not like there hasn't been media in the Halo universe that performs well that isn't centered on MC. The most hyped part of Halo 5 was the in-game universe introduction of Blue Team after years of being relegated to extended fiction status... had nothing to do with Chief.
This isn't exactly true, there have been non-canonical anthologies.
I think it's safe to say that if Halo fans have this expectation, Then they are impossible to meet at the level of quality the series deserves. It's more often a limiting factor than a bonus, thanks to the breadth of the source material.
They really need to take a page from Got and MCU, and it appears that's what they are doing. If the quality is good, fans will get over the fact that it isn't Canon.
If a person think Master Chief its character isnt Halo and associated with the Halo name instantly there is not much to discuss really.
You never needed Chief to make a Halo game and you don't need Chief to make a Halo story.
Not sure what you are trying to say. These are spinoffs or dlc for a main game. If we get more tv shows from Halo people would be fine with a spinoff also.
Not your first main tv show of Halo ever.
For fans of the series, would you like big name celebrities cast or relatively unknowns?
I ask because I think I read somewhere that they want this to reach GoT levels. I remember when I first watched GoT a large number of actors and actresses were unknown in my country. We grew to love them and seeing them in other stuff after GoT was kinda nice in a weird way. Can Halo pull that off or will it require heavy star power? Thoughts?
I ask because I think I read somewhere that they want this to reach GoT levels. I remember when I first watched GoT a large number of actors and actresses were unknown in my country. We grew to love them and seeing them in other stuff after GoT was kinda nice in a weird way. Can Halo pull that off or will it require heavy star power? Thoughts?
It's okay, neither could the people creating it. Half of the first book takes place in the wrong decade.
ODST wasn't DLC and Reach was a full fledged Halo game that followed the most well known event in Halo history that had 0.0% of Chief in the game and story (although he was in the book version of events, but those have been effectively retconned out iirc, and still the game focused on the actions outside of Chief in the same point of history, just like ODST took place in the aftermath of New Mombasa slip space rupture)
It really does read like your defense is basically people are too stupid and Halo is only filled with a bunch of "bro shooter" guys who need MC to be super bad ass and do cool stuff in order for the series to survive.
Its like you didnt read my post at all about the first main tv show of Halo.
And that last part. Right..
haha wow really? didn't fall of reach come out before the first game? so what, did it literally contradict itself?
It's always especially wild when in a sci fi story they tell you what month it is, because that's a thing i never think about in sci fi. Like wow we're on a flaming asteroid orbiting a black hole and it's October. makes u think about the arbitraryness of the whole concept
Just cast new characters, don't change the already established. It's so stupid to change already established personas.
It contradicts itself and the misprint even managed to make its way into the revised reprint released a decade later which was meant to correct a bunch of errors. Editing video game tie-in novels is an art form.
Literally proves that Halo doesnt need Master Chief in everything
Never said that also. Spinoffs are fine and if we have already more seasons of the main show a spinoff could be great. But not for your first ever big Halo TV show.
Makes complety sense they use MC for that as like i said Master Chief and the Halo name are talked most of the time in the same breath.
Chief is in fact in the show, so the point is moot. But I don't think he NEEDS to be in it for it to work. They just need to have interesting characters and tell a good story.
The big issue with H5 is that they advertised it as a chief centered story and it wasn't. Also the characters you played with instead were poorly developed and uninteresting.
The big issue with H5 is that they advertised it as a chief centered story and it wasn't. Also the characters you played with instead were poorly developed and uninteresting.
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I love Halo, but I've always found the lore/stories to be incomprehensible so I'm fine with this.
I honestly don't care if the show is canon or not. I only care if it's good or not while being faithful to the IP.
It was pretty simple before Halo 4, to be honest.
Humans achieve intergalactic travel but meet face to face with cultist aliens. Cultist aliens worship ancient alien technology, which was designed to kill the lovecraftian zombie aliens. And the story of halo is just these 3 races trying to do their thing: Humanity is trying to survive, the Covenant are trying to kill humanity, the Flood is trying to kill everyone. In the games, humanities basic thing doesn't change, they want to survive in all 3 games. The flood, similarly, just tries to kill everyone in all 3 games. Only the Covenant gets a bit complicated once one species breaks away because they're betrayed and realize that the Flood is going to kill everyone if they don't get their heads on straight.
In the books, the main difference is that humanity is depicted much more cynically. For example, the Spartan program wasn't meant to fight aliens, Master Chief's purpose, had they never encountered aliens, would have been to kill other humans who were rebelling against the UNSC's fascistic policies. Also, AI like Cortana also comes with all the standard scifi trope questions concerning artificially created life. Also, if you want to look into it, the Flood themselves can be a trip since their motivation is basically to absorb everyone into it's hive mind, so from it's perspective, it doesn't want to kill anyone but wants to give them eternal life by combining their intelligence into one being.
Then Halo 4 comes in and the forerunners are revealed to be ancient humans, but they're also kind of bastards who ruled the galaxy with an iron fist, and now they're revealed to have actually survived and....well, this was where I dropped off the Halo lore, so you need to ask someone whose up to date with the modern day stuff. I personally just liked Halo lore as it was in the Bungie days and really wish that 343i had gone about it a different way.
I mean it's clear why you dropped it off. You apparently didn't play the game since this is straight up wrong.
I did, but I actually got that bit from the book by Greg Bear. It's been a LONG while since I read it though, so I might be misremembering, but I'm pretty sure it depicted the forerunners as fairly aggressive rulers of the galaxy.
Edit: From the Halo wiki:
So, yeah....bastards, from what I can tell.
Well that bit is the only thing you did get a bit right. Everything else was somewhat wrong or completely wrong.
Forerunners aren't Ancient Humans, this was established in Halo 3's terminals. They were another species.
They didn't all survive. Just the Didact. The Librarian is just an advanced recording stored on Requiem.
In terms of their rule of the galaxy it's a bit more complicated then they just ruled with an Iron Fist. The Humans and the San'Shyuum who were in alliance were the only ones who could match their power. However when the Flood came about from experiments and began to invade Human territory, it forced Humanity and the San'Shyuum to run. Since there was however tensions between them and the Forerunners, when Humanity destroyed a Forerunner planet because it contained some flood, this resulted in a long war despite the Flood having been: "stopped".
Tensions had gotten high because the Forerunners didn't care about ruling over others but they still wanted to expand. They specifically would take entire civilizations and move them to worlds in the outer rim so that the Forerunners could move their own in. Humanity actually left Earth due to this, long before the war broke out.
Ultimately after the war, after Humanity was devolved and the San'Shyuum exiled to their homeworld, the Forerunners just kept kind of doing their own thing. With the military only really taking back control once the Flood started up again. There was a lot of tension between Forerunners due to that. Between those who wanted to preserve life and others who would do anything to stop the Flood.
Yeah, that part, I misremembered. I forgot that Humans existed in forerunner times, so yeah, they're different species. They still seem to be the forerunners chosen inheritors though, so that must have been what tripped me up.
That's another part I misremembered. I knew only Didacts faction survived, but I thought the promethean knights were forerunners. I looked it up, and it says they're more robots that are shaped like forerunners, so you can see why I'd make that mistake.
Anyway, I just in general didn't like the shift in understanding of the forerunners that happened from the OT Halo to the new ones. Or I didn't like how it was told, both in the games and the expanded materials, so I kinda dropped off the Halo lore train. I don't dispute that I probably forgot a lot of details from the games, but I mainly remember just not liking them. I liked the dynamic of Halo 3's factions and the changes made just made them complicated, but not in a way I found satisfying.
The lore lost me with the Greg Bear books and Halo 4. I feel like it took far too much contrived logic to make Forerunner and Humanity into ancient enemies.
I'm also kinda annoyed at the sense that we need massive, galactic stakes all the time. I really wish they would have developed a new threat organically with a focus on characters instead of trying to one-up the flood+covenant.
I'm want to be interested in the story, but for the last 7 they've hardly given me any characters worth caring and the ones I DO care about haven't gotten a shot on a mainstream project. And H5s plot is just nonsense.
Here's hoping that this TV series and Halo Infinite reverses these trends.
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Well if your hoping for retcons and such then your out of luck. Halo Infinite will keep it's story simple but it's not reversing what came before it.
There's no rationale at this time because none of that has happened yet. It might. It might not. But the rationale would be finding a great actor who fits the role.
Everyone is Scottish in the 26th century.
"What? Don't you mean like ...just Hamish Beamish and Spartan Grant?".
I won't be commenting on any of this for a while - but we're not going to do stunt casting or shifting ethnicity of characters just for lulz or clicks or controversy. Kiki is right on the money in that we'll be casting based on who works best for the role, period. We will also be casting people who look and sound a lot like their existing characters are described or shown.
And that's it from me. No comment, no elaboration till later at which point I will be crystal clear. But until that time I will only respond with LOUD BUZZING SOUNDS.
I have but one request...
Ya know, if his character is there and all.
Nope, I'm not interested in retcons. Just a good characters and good story - the less they feel inclined to dive into Forerunner lore, the better I think the story will be ultimately.
The trend I want reversed is the poor character development and plot contrivance. They cant undo what's already occurred, but they can do better with new projects.
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I have but one request...
Ya know, if his character is there and all.
You're saying we should cast Carrot Top as the Arbiter!??
The following contains no news and I'm being deliberately vague. If this shows up as a news story I'll be legit whew wat.
Btw on casting- we're not doing "stunt-casting" for forced diversity- if a character's ethnicity is irrelevant to their character then we'll hire the best actor regardless of race - and if a character has relatives then they'll be cast rationally to suit - but we want the 26th century human diaspora to look like the human race- that may mean small clusters of exported cultures and ethnicity on colonial worlds- as you saw a little on Reach (game) with the Romanian and Hungarian agri-cultures but yeah- to the best of our ability the focus will be on talent and appropriate logic as a future that looks as diverse as you'd expect it to.
Halo has always had a tricky relationship with race in that Chief is canonically a white guy — but for players all over the world his anonymity creates a subjective and highly personal immersion- and his voice actor varies from region to region. So in Mexico or Japan, a kid plays the game as someone who looks and sounds like them - and girls aren't constantly reminded they're not really the chief through his spare and taciturn dialogue. The show in that regard has to deviate from how fans imagine the Chief - even though Pablo Schreiber fits the canonical description to a tee. If you're a Japanese kid and used to the Japanese chief (played by Japanese dubbed Jack Bauer from 24 actor btw) then seeing chief in person will take getting used to - but tbh that's a little bit true for every player regardless of what they look like. It's also going to be a show about people and perspectives that first person games obviously can't portray except in cinematics.
Our director's approach to that difference in media has been inspiring. He loves the Halo worlds and content and has some compelling views on everything from spaceship designs to the cadence of game combat.
We'll talk more about this during the year including the things that we're doing to both protect and insulate the continuing game story- as well as the things we feel are essential to capture and amplify.
You never needed Chief to make a Halo game and you don't need Chief to make a Halo story.
This is like saying not every Mario game needs Mario and posting a bunch of pictures of Luigi's Mansion and Warios Woods as examples...
I forgot Mario had a giant expanded universe and stories about the mass genocide of an entire species across a large section of the Milky Way galaxy
my bad
That's my point. Mainline games use the mainline character. Plenty of room for both. But if it's a sequel to Halo 5, it should be Chief.
OP
OP
I appreciate the update. At this point I'm more concerned of overall canon and how it will fit into the existing timelines or if this is going to be entirely separate from the canon.
Thinking that your mainland character is a fit for your mainland TV series is how you get bad TV.
The difference is that 2 of those games are in the same genre as MC, have the same (or similar enough) gameplay as MC, and all 3 are about the same conflict as MC, and two of them are also blank slates like MC. You could make an argument for halo wars being a different thing, but calling ODST and Reach spin offs in any sense besides story is reaching. So imagine a Luigi game with all the basic mechanics of a mainline Mario game and telling me that it's not a true Mario game because it has you playing Luigi even though the gameplay is straightforward Mario.
Honestly, the "X character is franchise Y" excuse has always rang false to me - if your cast of characters is so pathetically uninteresting that only one of them is capable of being a protagonist, your universe is just lame - but this defense for Halo is particularly baffling to me. I like master chief just fine, but he's literally designed to be a blank slate.
How can you argue he's irreplaceable as a protagonist when he's intentionally designed lacking in defining characteristics? Can you even, without looking them up, tell me any major character difference between noble 6 and Master chief? They're blanks, man. Master chief has iconic armor and has an iconic voice, but its absurd to argue the franchise wouldn't function without them.
I'm going to assume you're not very familiar with Chief's wider story outside of the games. That's fine.
I'm not the best person to ask about this, I could write down the backstory for both in a very long and detailed post without looking up anything as I am VERY familiar with the lore - I have screenshots, gifs, excerpts from various books, Halsey's Journal, etc. I don't expect most to be able to, but they're very different characters.
I also reject your assessment that Halo's cast of characters or pathetically uninteresting. If you want to stick your fingers in your ears and pretend that there's nothing to them, then that's on you. There's so much they could explore.
I'm well aware of the extended fiction pre-343, that doesn't negate that there are far more interesting stories to explore in Halo than doing the same thing we have always been doing, following Spartans (in the games that is, there are as you know plenty of extended fiction that explores non-Spartan characters). There are far more interesting stories to tell in a the Halo universe.
This isn't a really good analogy.
Mario is the titular character in Mario, games. Master Chief is not so in Halo games.
Halo games without MC are still Halo games. Mario games have Mario in them. Luigi's mansion isn't a Mario game.
On that note, how many halo games feature the conflict on actual halos? Halo 1 does, then halo 2 spends half it's time elsewhere, half on a halo, halo 3 spends it not on a halo but on the ark that controls the halos, halo odst spends its entire time on earth and halo reach on Reach.
Either way, Halo is actually an artifact title. All the mainline games feature them to some extent, but only the first Halo is really ABOUT the Halo.
Please just cast Jen Taylor as Cortana.
This actually sounds like the exact right approach. Thanks Stinkles. If I could make one request, actually have shields on Spartans, elites and covenant ships. It always bugged me in Mass effect or other media where shields are a big deal but in every cutscene they instantly disappear and have no revelance. I want shiny force fields absorbing damage it's such a big part of Halo.
This actually sounds like the exact right approach. Thanks Stinkles. If I could make one request, actually have shields on Spartans, elites and covenant ships. It always bugged me in Mass effect or other media where shields are a big deal but in every cutscene they instantly disappear and have no revelance. I want shiny force fields absorbing damage it's such a big part of Halo.
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It's to show that there are games in both universes that don't star the main character. MC is front and centre on the cover of every single mainline Halo game - he is absolutely the main character. Not so in the spinoffs. I would call Luigi's Mansion a spinoff game set in the same 'universe' as the main Mario games. Yes, I realize the analogy is as shaky as the Mario lore, but alas..
Seems to be some confusion I guess.
Master Chief series:
Halo CE
Halo 2
Halo 3
Halo 4
Halo 5
Halo Infinite
Not Master Chief series:
Halo 3: ODST
Halo Reach
Halo Wars/2
Halo Spartan Strike/Assault
This is how it's always been. Yes they all are called Halo.
Master Chief's upbringing would make for such a good show but I doubt that's what we're getting.