Showtime is finally making the long-anticipated Halo TV series a reality, but what could be the show’s plot? There have been plans to adapt the popular video-games into a live-action format for over a decade. As far back as 2005, Columbia Pictures signed up to a film adaptation, with Peter Jackson as executive producer and Neil Blomkamp as director. Unfortunately, the film entered Development Hell, and by 2007 Blomkamp was declaring the project dead.
In 2013, Amblim, 343 Industries, and Showtime announced that they were moving ahead with a Halo TV series. A year later, Microsoft’s new leader Phil Spencer shut down their Entertainment Studios division, canceling plans to develop original video programming for the Xbox systems. The Halo TV series was believed to have been killed off as a result - until last year, when rumblings began to suggest that the series was still in the works. Those have now been confirmed, with Showtime signing up for a 10-episode first season. Kyle Killen (Awake) is attached as executive producer and showrunner, while Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) is also serving as an executive producer and writer for the series.
Until now, it’s generally been believed any Halo TV series would essentially be a spinoff, an adventure set in the Halo universe but starring original characters - including, most likely, at least one Spartan. But is that necessarily the case? There’s no reason one medium can’t be adapted into another; with good-quality writers, novels and even video-games can be turned into strong TV shows. Just take a look at the success of Game of Thrones as the ultimate example. So, could the Halo TV series actually star the Master Chief, and explore the full story of the Earth-Covenant War? Here’s how we see it going down.
- This Page: Seasons 1 & 2: Establish The Halo Lore Page 2: Seasons 3 & 4: The Human-Covenant War
Season 1: The Fall of Reach and the Rise of the Master Chief
The Halo franchise may be best known for video games, but it’s long since broadened out beyond that. In fact, the wider story of the Halo universe has already been explored in a range of popular novels, the most important probably being Eric Nylund’s Halo: The Fall of Reach. This essentially serves as a prequel to the first Halo game, and opens with the backstory of the Spartan program. As the plot progresses, we see the first encounter between humans and the alien races known as the Covenant, and the Spartans acquit themselves well in those initial brutal clashes. All that leads up to a Covenant attack on the planet Reach, one of humanity’s most important military worlds.
Nylund’s novel was a tremendous success, establishing the canon backstory of the Master Chief and revealing just how dangerous the Covenant really were, selling over one million copies, and kickstarting the entire Halo novel franchise. The story has already been adapted for a number of different mediums, and parts of the plot formed the basis for the Halo: Reach game.
Halo Season 1 could be adapted from Nyland’s novel, humanizing the Master Chief and establishing him as a character in his own right rather than just an unrelenting warrior. It’s possible the show could take dramatic license, weaving the Master Chief’s backstory into flashback sequences while focusing in on the main plot - the war between humanity and the Covenant. This would lead to a dramatic season finale, one in which the Covenant glassed the entire planet Reach, and the Pillar of Autumn jumped into slipspace - only to emerge next to the first Halo ring and making for a major cliffhanger ending.
Season 2: Discovering the Halo Rings
Season 2 would then explore the classic Halo story; the discovery of the first Halo Ring, the desperate battle to prevent the Ring’s being triggered, and the horrific onslaught of the Flood. Naturally, the story would need to be subtly changed; after all, you can’t simply translate the game straight to the small screen. The plot could draw inspiration from William C. Dietz’s novelization of the first game, Halo: The Flood.
This season would end with the destruction of the first Halo Ring. A cool end sequence would be a cutaway scene revealing that 343 Guilty Spark has survived the destruction of the installation - and he could perhaps even mutter to himself about the other Rings.
Page 2 of 2: Seasons 3 & 4: The Human-Covenant War
Season 3 & Beyond: The Human-Covenant War
The next season - and, indeed, potentially quite a few seasons after - could easily draw further inspiration from the Halo novels. Eric Nylund’s Halo: First Strike tells an essential story; after the destruction of the first Halo Ring, how did the Master Chief and his allies make it home? At the same time, it also deepened the lore of the Halo universe, revealing that the planet Reach was actually a Forerunner construct in its own right. When the Master Reach returned to Reach, he discovered that a number of his Spartans had actually survived the planet’s fall.
There’s essentially unlimited potential in this time-period. Nylund’s novel expands the cast subtly, meaning the show could then follow multiple side-stories. The plot also introduces two major new characters; Tartarus, leader of the Brutes, and the Elite who would ultimately become the Arbiter. The history of the Forerunners is a subtle plot-thread that continues to run through the story, with the threat of further Halo Rings looming large.
Of course, the plot would then move on to take inspiration from Halo 2 - which kicks off with the Covenant attacking Earth. Soon we’re seeing another Halo Ring brought into play, and by the end of that season, all remaining installations have moved to standby. Fortunately, the Master Chief returns to Earth on a stolen Covenant vessel, and the season could end with a classic scene - as the Master Chief explains just what it is he aims to do. “Sir,” Spartan-117 reports, “Finishing this fight.”
Final Season: Finishing the Fight (And the War)
The Master Chief’s return to Earth is detailed in Brian Bendis’s tie-in comic Halo: Uprising, and that could easily form the basis for a good few episodes - before we finally launch into the events of Halo 3. The plot of this season would see the Master Chief and the Arbiter join forces against Tartarus and the Prophet of Truth, desperately attempting to prevent the ignition of all the galaxy’s Halo Rings - and the extinction of all life. This is the logical culmination of the Halo story, with the Master Chief finally using an actual Halo weapon against the threat of the Flood.
Although the Halo games have continued, it actually makes sense to end the story here. The Human-Covenant War would fits as a single overarching narrative, and there’s a beautiful poetry in the Master Chief’s use of a Halo Ring to finally bring an end to the bloodshed and war. The series would then end on an Arthurian note, with the Master Chief entering cryogenic sleep, destined to return at the moment he is most needed.
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The Halo story is one with almost unlimited potential. This bare-bones story could form the basis for at least five seasons, potentially more, all linked by a single overarching narrative thread. The star of the show would be Spartan-117, but choosing to tell the tale of his origin first would ensure he became an actual character, rather than just a one-man army. As the series continues, the stakes become ever-greater; the threat of the Halo Rings becomes a terrifying, galactic threat.
TV shows like Game of Thrones have proven that it’s possible to adapt other mediums into some of the most successful TV series; there’s no reason this couldn’t be done with Halo.
