If you’ve read our previous articles about the Halo TV Series, you’ll know that we, alongside others in the critical and fan space, have made our thoughts rather clear on its first season. It wasn’t anywhere close to where it needed to be, and everyone suffered because of it. They should be glad they got a second season to try and “fix things,” though many still wonder if they can be fixed. The good news is that Halo Season 2 is attempting to “course correct” via a new showrunner and writer while focusing on events that franchise fans know about. The biggest one being the fall of Reach.
In an interview with Xbox, Xbox Head of IP Expansion and Entertainment Kiki Wolfkill talked about what steps they took to ensure that Halo Season 2 lived up to the potential that this franchise has in the live-action space and why this season will be different from the first:
“With Season 2, we edge up against events that we start to see in the games. Obviously the events on Reach, which people have seen in trailers, [are] a huge historical milestone in Halo history and chronology, and are also critical [to] the story – because what it does is it marks when the Covenant have really come close to home. Reach is our last stand before they find Earth.”
Right off the bat, that will make gamers happy because one of the biggest flaws with Season 1 was the many storylines that didn’t have anything to do with the games or made Master Chief seem like a different character. But with the fall of Reach coming, they have the chance to do something special and familiar while still putting their own take on things:
“We really tried to honour that event for what it means for the stakes. But also, what we get to do is see it from a different perspective – we get to see it on the ground. We get to see it from the soldiers’ perspective, outside of Noble team, which is where Halo: Reach focuses. And so you get a very different story that comes out of that by virtue of seeing what it means for a Marine to go through that – what it means for a city to fall and how terrifying that is.”
Wolfkill also promises a more “visceral,” “nitty-gritty” experience that harkens back to certain live-action TV ads they made for past video games. Only time will tell if this pans out the way they hope.
