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Halo: The Series (Live Action, Paramount, 2022)

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atomheartbevo

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For those wondering where it fits into everything, they've released timeline info.  Some light spoilers in the text I'm quoting, but the major spoilers are in the spoiler tags.

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/silver-debrief-a-new-beginning

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we are debuting the official trailer for the Halo series on Sunday, Jan 30 as part of the AFC Championship game on CBS and Paramount +. 

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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.

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"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.

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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 Halogames.

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.

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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.

Spoiler

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."

ALEX: This new, independent branch of canon is obviously a huge decision, but one that affords some interesting new ways to frame ‘tentpole’ moments and events from throughout the series without having to deal with which is ‘definitive.’ And we get to bring more obscure things from the expanded universe to the foreground as well!

FRANK: "Even in the existing core canon, we have some elements that were framed as sort of set-in-stone as we join Halo: Combat Evolved in medias res, so events that have shaped our well-known characters have already happened. Because the show can play with both space and time in a way games often can’t, we have the chance to go back and explore those origins and events from the perspective of both the audience and the characters within the show.

Most Halo lore fans are aware of the origin story of Chief, the Spartan program, and the machinations and outcomes of that program, but haven’t seen it through the eyes of the kids who experienced it, or the adults tasked with making it happen. We get to do that, and also tell a story about a fairly dark period in the Halo universe, and unblinkingly look at the ethics and morality – but with the advantage of perspective. We know why the SPARTAN-II program happened and also why it may have been necessary, but the moral ambiguity of both events and characters is going to act as a prism for how we view things we thought we already knew."

.....

FRANK: "There are a few things that feel similar to building a huge game. Production logic and process is often similar, and of course we share lots of material – from ship designs and blueprints, to character bios, sound effects, and all the nuts and bolts of a shared universe.

Spoiler

ALEX: We’ve done some live-action work before with the likes of Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn and Halo: Nightfall, which both remain part of core canon. What’s made the process with the Halo television series similar or different to these projects?

FRANK: "The main similarity – aside from the realities of filming, casting, and post-production – is the excitement of working with great creatives to visualize and build physical versions of virtual things, but the difference in scale is beyond exponential. We have built Warthogs and spaceships and places before, but not multiple worlds and the narrative pathways between them.

So yeah, in a freeze frame, it looks similar to live action stuff we’ve done before, but the sheer magnitude of difference is dizzying."

Spoiler

ALEX: On a similar note: will there be any crossover between the Silver Timeline and core canon? Could something from the Silver Timeline (say, for example, a new vehicle model) be integrated into a future core canon project?

FRANK: "Absolutely – and ideally both ways. The show certainly is built on the shoulders of Halo’s canonical giants. The history, the aesthetic, the narrative underpinnings, and so on, are all directly aligned with, inspired by, based on, or aligned with existing Halo stuff.

Of course, there are tweaks. Armor has to be practical, for example, and Warthogs have to be able to pull off stunts as well as look right, but story differences create great opportunities to make new things that could potentially feature in future games – not just objects or effects, or designs, but people, events, inventions, and more. These are two different Narratives, but they are profoundly connected by the same DNA and the intention is to keep making the two the best they can be, not to distract from, avoid, or ape each other. But they are both distinctly Halo and those opportunities are boundless."

ALEX: Of course, unbound from core canon, the context and creation of the Silver Timeline also offers some great new opportunities as well as the Halo franchise continues to evolve...

FRANK: "Yes, we’ll see how we can take advantage of the show to bring interesting or appropriate stuff into the core canon – and again, sometimes they will align organically just because we’re telling ‘true’ Halo stories in each.

But a great reverse example is how shield alerts can bring more intense drama to a scene in television – there will be lots of interesting moments and ideas like that from the show, that can make sense in future game content. But again, it needs to be rational and appropriate. We won’t shoehorn things in to force that function."

ALEX: This has gotten us to really look at what Halo is beyond the matter of canon as well. We’ve done a lot of exploration and analysis of the legacy of this franchise and what the quintessence of Halo really is. Twenty years on, what are some of the core themes and ideas that really make a Halo story and serve as some of the pillars of the show?

FRANK: "For me, it’s heroism, nobility, honor, and the idea of one person making a difference. But the beauty of Halo is that it’s a rich enough source for people to see all sorts of themes in it that are important to them. Mystery, horror, action, romance, family – all the universal story themes that make up any strong narrative or world-building are there to be explored and experienced.

The show being a story that isn’t presented automatically through a single lens (or visor) means that the ideas and events that are explored in the extended fiction – the novels, comics, even ARGs and live action commercials – can now be expanded upon, explored, and put directly in a single connected story and timeline. Again, lots of familiar, but also plenty of surprises and differences."

Generic stuff:

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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 Halofans 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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atomheartbevo

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1 hour ago, Captainant said:

Those lore writers know how to spin a good story but they've always had trouble getting creative buy in for the whole idea

Looks like a shit-ton of world building going on in the trailer and teaser, and they've managed to capture that "epic" feel of some of the games.  Here's hoping they did what they wanted to do.

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atomheartbevo

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Also, it looks a lot more expensive than Wheel of Time and a few other big-budget sf/fantasy shows (including most of the live-action Trek these days), and the effects/etc. look on par with some of the best of The Expanse, For All Mankind, and The Mandalorian, so they have that going for them.  Then again, Foundation looked expensive, and that's a mixed bag for a lot of folks.  

But it's also got some odd color grading.  This shit has been bugging me with other shows, and it's been discussed here a few times.  A friend who is in FX said it's always been a problem, but we al just had shitty TVs that we didn't notice it on, and few of us were doing color calibration on them, so I don't feel so bad now, but he did mention that it is different between studios/etc., because they all have their way of doing things, it's just that we have the TVs and computer displays that we notice it on.

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utxmike05

utxmike05 1828

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Hell yea!  Trailer is awesome.
Somehow graduated UT spending more time playing than studying, but cane out with a minor in Halo.  They have somehow drug out the franchise this long and finally doing it justice with a solid show.  And it looks like this series will check all the boxes to please fans.  

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  • 1 month later...
ztejas

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I somehow missed this. Looks pretty fucking awesome. 

And I DO pay for Paramount+!

On 1/30/2022 at 7:31 PM, billfromlaketravis said:

If this show had come out in 2004, it would have been the popular show on cable/television. I like the effort, but I'm not sure there's a huge Halo audience. 

You realize that they've made more Halo games since 2004, right?

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atomheartbevo

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3 minutes ago, Scary Stranger said:

Good to hear.  Downloaded it to watch with the sons this evening.  They both play so are appropriately excited.

Commander Shepard reference, lol.    He waited for shield regen as well.  

Good first episode for a video game show, but they do kill kids, FYI.  

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Captainant

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33 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

By the way, those of you with kids who maybe watching, it is a very hard R right out of the gate, and not kidding about them killing kids.

Man I am pretty impressed with the intensity of this show. They're going for a bunch of very dark storylines right outta the gate, and it sure seems like they're not pulling punches. Great set and prop design too! Im really impressed with the effects work. 

They really sell how fucking scary plasma weapons are, waaaayyyyy better than the games ever did

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ztejas

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Dear God Paramount Plus sucks monkey dick. I'm actually torrenting this to watch it because it won't stay in high quality trying to play it on my computer (over fucking google fiber) and it's laggy as shit trying to play it on my phone for some reason whether it's downloaded or not. 

Congrats paramount. I pay for your service and I'm still pirating it because your shit sucks. 

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ztejas

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I thought it was good. Didn't feel too cheesy or forced - although I did think it was funny how much the combat scene resembled gameplay. The sounds, weapons, HUD overlay - even the mechanics with how they fought was very Haloy. Which - I guess works? Felt a little bit like a video game ad but I guess it's cool that it is a faithful representation. 

The politics/military stuff I thought was well handled and interesting - not just "interesting for a video game adaption" but interesting for what you'd want from a good TV show. Neither the writing nor acting sucks and they did well to world build right out of the gate to where I'm wondering where they're going with all of this (and apparently it's going to be a standalone timeline?).

Spoiler

It was funny - when the girl threatened to falsify what happened I was thinking "like she has any leverage - couldn't they just off her?" and then the article 72 stuff came up - I felt validated with my reasoning.

Also - really not sure how I feel about Chief taking his helmet off - but I guess it has to happen for TV show reasons and at least they ripped the bandaid off early. Still... I may need some personal reflection time. Perhaps sitting on a bench somewhere feeding ducks with a tear rolling down my cheek. 

 

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NotActuallyALonghorn

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I never played the games much, but I enjoyed it. I liked how they kicked the intensity up right at the beginning. The battle scene did feel very video gamey, but it was well done enough that it wasn't really a distraction.

4 hours ago, ztejas said:

 

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It was funny - when the girl threatened to falsify what happened I was thinking "like she has any leverage - couldn't they just off her?" and then the article 72 stuff came up - I felt validated with my reasoning.

Also - really not sure how I feel about Chief taking his helmet off - but I guess it has to happen for TV show reasons and at least they ripped the bandaid off early. Still... I may need some personal reflection time. Perhaps sitting on a bench somewhere feeding ducks with a tear rolling down my cheek. 

 

Spoiler

I think if he left his helmet on too long it might seem like they were copying The Mandalorian a bit too much.

 

Edited by NotActuallyALonghorn
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Captainant

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I'm really excited to see more types of covenant in live-action. We've already gotten a "wort wort wort", I REALLY want to see Chief pop some grunts with his magnum, and I'm uneasily excited to see Hunters in live action. They nailed the look of the prophets imo, so I can't wait to see a walking pile of worms with a cannon for an arm mixing it up with Chief

 

I couldn't care less if the show was good or bad, I'm enjoying seeing such a faithful recreation of Halo brought to the screen. The showrunners have definitely logged hours ingame lol

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utxmike05

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On 3/24/2022 at 8:15 AM, atomheartbevo said:

10 minutes in and it’s solid.  Also a huge homage to the video games.  
Edit.  FX and cinematography  are solid.  Cast seems solid.  

Yup solid well done. Not disappointed at all as a huge fan of the OG Halo games.  Opening kills was like Oh shit! this is gonna be gory lol. The details like sounds of MC's shield low and regenerating was a nice touch. 
 

It felt game like at just the right amount.  The Spartans did move quick and had attack moves that you couldn't do in video games. Which felt like real life combat fighting. 

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Js1

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3 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Lots of worldbuilding, and character building as well.  Apparently pulling a lot from some novels.   Wish the whole season  would drop.  

Me too. Some really good effects with the “planets” we see 

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Dutchrudder

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It was entertaining for me, but the one thing that annoyed me was the fact that the rebels guns did nothing against the elites. Then later Master Chief grabs one and destroys a few elites with it. Do the bullets shoot harder when he pulls the trigger?  Just a slightly annoying issue of consistency.  

I don't know where exactly this storyline is going, but making the UNSC out to be some sort of dystopian, totalitarian, evil-ish institution is kind of odd to me for the first season of the show.  Seems more like a Season 3-5 type storyline. I know it's dumb, but I really just want to see Master Chief and some Spartans kicking ass and dealing with the Covenant to make me happy.  

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Captainant

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1 hour ago, Dutchrudder said:

I don't know where exactly this storyline is going, but making the UNSC out to be some sort of dystopian, totalitarian, evil-ish institution is kind of odd to me for the first season of the show.  Seems more like a Season 3-5 type storyline. I know it's dumb, but I really just want to see Master Chief and some Spartans kicking ass and dealing with the Covenant to make me happy.  

It's pretty consistent with the books - the Spartan II program was seeded by kidnapping 75 kids and replacing them with clones that quickly died so the families wouldn't know. The UNSC made the Spartans to deal with the insurrectionists, and they just happened to be kickass at killing covvies too

I'm very much into the Starship Troopers vibe that the Halo universe plays with

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ztejas

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1 hour ago, Dutchrudder said:

It was entertaining for me, but the one thing that annoyed me was the fact that the rebels guns did nothing against the elites.

Yeah idk. I guess the weapons the Spartans have are that much more advanced. And their aim is better on top of it maybe?

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atomheartbevo

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5 hours ago, Captainant said:

It's pretty consistent with the books - the Spartan II program was seeded by kidnapping 75 kids and replacing them with clones that quickly died so the families wouldn't know. The UNSC made the Spartans to deal with the insurrectionists, and they just happened to be kickass at killing covvies too

I'm very much into the Starship Troopers vibe that the Halo universe plays with

I'm pretty okay with where they are starting, and where they seem to be going, and regardless of what plot points they pulled out (whether it be books or the games), they were going to catch flak, but this seems to be pretty solid so far.  I do think they probably did a decent job of getting non-Halo fans up-to-speed quickly on a lot of things.

And it's already been renewed for a second season (before it aired) so the execs must have felt it was fairly coherent.  Plus it has input from Microsoft/etc.

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NotActuallyALonghorn

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Why is it in science fiction movies or shows that whenever someone exits warp/wormholes/slipstream or whatever it is and ends up in an asteroid field that they have to race through there like they are in the Le Mans or something? Dude, slow down if nobody is chasing you. You're only gonna shave a few minutes off of your flight at the most.

 

Also, good episode.

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MonkeyDoughnut

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8 hours ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Why is it in science fiction movies or shows that whenever someone exits warp/wormholes/slipstream or whatever it is and ends up in an asteroid field that they have to race through there like they are in the Le Mans or something? Dude, slow down if nobody is chasing you. You're only gonna shave a few minutes off of your flight at the most.

 

Also, good episode.

I'd think by then the autopilot - avoid the asteroids flying avoidance system would be better. They are always flying manual through them too.

And loving this series so far.

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ztejas

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On 3/31/2022 at 11:58 PM, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Why is it in science fiction movies or shows that whenever someone exits warp/wormholes/slipstream or whatever it is and ends up in an asteroid field that they have to race through there like they are in the Le Mans or something? Dude, slow down if nobody is chasing you. You're only gonna shave a few minutes off of your flight at the most.

 

Also, good episode.

 

18 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

I'd think by then the autopilot - avoid the asteroids flying avoidance system would be better. They are always flying manual through them too.

And loving this series so far.

Oh - yeah - I meant to touch on this. 

In reality (well, OUR reality) - asteroid fields look nothing like that. Space is mostly empty. That's true whether you're in a region of space that's "highly" populated with random objects or that's pretty much absent of them entirely. In the asteroid belt in our own solar system - for example - each individual floating piece of rock would be billions of miles away from each other. You'd sail through totally unharmed. 

But, you know, Star Wars was super dope and shit and so now we see this scene ad nauseum. 

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