After Seven Years, We Finally Have A Teaser For The Halo TV Show
In the spring of 2013, the heads of Microsoft Studios walked onstage at E3 to deliver what would go down in history as one of their worst presentations. Their job was to convince gamers to buy the XBox One, but as they were still at this time enthralled by the temporary success of the 360’s Kinect, they spent a good chunk of time explaining how a Kinect would be a built-in, unavoidable part of the XBox One experience. The XBox’s traditional hardcore audience didn’t care for the Kinect at all. But it got worse.
Microsoft then revealed used games wouldn’t work on the XBox One and that it would require an always-on Internet connection to function, two decisions that were massively anti-consumer at that point in time. They got boos all over the Internet and the next day, Sony had a good laugh at their expense by demonstrating their high-tech “game sharing system” where a man simply handed a disc to another man. PS4 won the race that gen, and Microsoft learned a hard lesson.
The point is, that very day, Microsoft also promised “original television content” would be streamed exclusively on XBox One and to prove it, they cued up a video where Steven Spielberg, round glasses, gray beard and all, revealed he was working on a Halo TV series. Most people assumed it was another empty promise and the show would never actually happen. But the project was never cancelled, and it’s been in quiet development all this time.
Want proof? Here it is. After seven years of waiting, we present the first Halo TV series teaser:
It’s obviously not an XBox One exclusive anymore (or even an XBox Series X exclusive). After MS abandoned the idea of original TV content, the Halo show was sent to Showtime, and then shuttled to Paramount+. Pablo Schreiber is starring as the always-armored Master Chief, while Jen Taylor is reprising her role as his AI companion Cortana.
We’re told the series will not be a simple retelling of the games’ plots and will go off on its own direction. Three more characters who did not appear in a Halo game will be played by Bentley Kalu, Natasha Culzac, and Kate Kennedy — they’re other Spartan supersoldiers who will be battling aliens alongside Chief. No word on if Spielberg is still connected to this. It would appear not.
The Halo show will premiere on Paramount+ in 2022. For extra irony, stream it on your Playstation 4.