The developers of Halo say the TV show will show a side of Master Chief that we’ve not yet seen in the games. In a recent interview with IGN, 343’s head of transmedia Kiki Wolfkill spoke about her role as the executive producer of the Halo show and how the character of Master Chief is going to be different from what players have seen.
Considering Master Chief is the ultimate player character — meaning, he’s designed to have just enough of a neutral personality that the player can easily see themselves in him while they’re playing the game — it has apparently been difficult to translate him to screen. He’s being played by Pablo Schreiber in the series. Ordinarily, I would have said that the helmet would have made it difficult to read the character’s emotions, but The Mandalorian has proven that it need not be a big roadblock provided you have a competent actor playing Chief.
“Probably the biggest challenge with adapting the game is that the game is designed to put you in Chief’s armor. What we’re asking people to do with the show is to sort of sit back and say we’re going to present a side of Chief that you just don’t get to play in the games,” said Wolfkill. According to Gamespot, Wolfkill added, “In a first-person shooter, there is only so much of a character journey because of that wanting to maintain some of that character for people to pour into him or her. So TV gives us a long form ability to really focus on character and story in a way that’s harder to relay in a first-person game.”
The Halo show is set to premiere sometime next year on Paramount+. In addition to Schreiber as Chief, the series cast includes Natascha McElhone as Dr. Catherine Halsey, David Sapani as Captain Jacob Keyes, Olive Gray as Dr. Miranda Keyes, Charlie Murphy as Makee, Bokeem Woodbine as Soren-066, and Jen Taylor reprising her role as Cortana.
