For the longest time, video game adaptations into the live-action space were not revered. If anything, they were held in fear and trepidation. That might sound harsh, but considering the long line of painfully bad adaptations, you understand why things weren’t held in the highest esteem. Then, when we did get a good adaptation, we would hope for another to come out, and it didn’t happen most times. However, things are slowly starting to turn around thanks to certain properties and attention to detail. Detective Pikachu and the Sonic The Hedgehog movies got the ball rolling on the movie front, while The Last of Us is making a huge splash on the TV front. But now, Phil Spencer wants another series to be held in such high regard.
What series would that be? As if you have to ask, it’s the Halo TV series that debuted last year. In a chat with IGN, Phil Spencer was asked if The Last of Us’ success on HBO/HBO Max led him to want the Halo series to reach such accolades and praise:
“I want the best for everything that we work on, Halo television series included. I think there’s some differences there, but I don’t think that the point of the question of, ‘Hey, Last of Us is out there, setting an incredibly high bar. Should we all aspire to reach that same bar with the work that we do in television?’ Absolutely. I could say the same thing in video games,” replied Spencer.
While it’s nice for Spencer to show such loyalty to his brand and its properties, there are more than ‘some differences’ between the two TV shows. When the Halo series first came out, it was immediately met with divisive reactions from fans and critics. Furthermore, the team behind the show admitted they didn’t play the franchise or didn’t “think about the game” when making the show. That led to numerous controversial decisions and story beats that made longtime fans of the franchise mad.
That’s in direct contrast to The Last of Us, where not only was Naughty Dog instrumental in bringing the series to life, but they helped make sure that the series closely followed the games and only strayed from the story when they felt it could benefit from it. Episode 3, which premiered Sunday, is an excellent example of that.
So while the Halo series is getting a second season, it has a lot of ground to make up if it wants to be held in the same esteem as The Last of Us.