After years of a live-action Halo film not getting off the ground, Showtime greenlit a Halo TV series last summer. Production is continuing to move forward, as Pablo Schreiber has been announced for the role of Master Chief.
Schreiber is best known for his performances as Nick Sobotka on The Wire, Mad Sweeney in American Gods, and George “Pornstache” Mendez on Orange is the New Black, the latter of which earning him a Primetime Emmy nomination. It is unknown if the Halo TV series will feature Schreiber without his helmet, as Master Chief has yet to ever show his face in the video game series. In addition to his proven acting skills, the actor’s 6′ 5″ height actually comes pretty close to Master Chief’s 7′ 2″ build.
The show has also announced the casting of Yerin Ha in what will be the actor’s breakout role as Quan Ah. As reported by EW, Quan Ah is “a shrewd, audacious 16-year-old from the Outer Colonies who meets Master Chief at a fateful time for them both.”
Halo will feature new stories, and the writing team is working with Microsoft to ensure that all canon will be respected. Showtime describes the show as “weaving deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.” CEO David Nevins said in a panel, “It is futuristic, space-based science fiction. It’s not fantasy…It was a long time to get the script where we felt we had something really interesting and felt like it belonged on Showtime in terms of its character depth. It’s going to be a big show.”
The Halo series begins filming this summer, with a release expected for sometime in 2020. Microsoft is currently working on Halo 6, or Halo Infinite, which is also most likely releasing the same year. It is possible that Showtime and Microsoft may debut the titles around the same time.
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