Oscar-winning veteran movie director Steven Spielberg was more involved with the Halo TV series than some might have imagined or expected. Spielberg’s Amblin TV company produced the Halo series, and we now know that the E.T. and Indiana Jones director “godfathered” the project and contributed to “every aspect” of it, in some capacity at least.
“We treated it as though it was a legacy project of Steven’s,” producer Darryl Frank told Total Film (via GamesRadar). “He godfathered it in terms of reading every script, helping choose showrunners, writers, director, cast, production design, and visual effects; every aspect of it, he looked at.”
Fans may recall that Spielberg appeared in the initial Halo TV series announcement video all the way back in 2013, so his connection to the series dates back quite a while.
The project took many years to get off the ground, but it did eventually film in Budapest in recent years and is now scheduled for release on Paramount+ later this month. Pablo Schreiber stars as the Master Chief, and in a big break from tradition, we will actually see his face. The TV series and the games have different canon, so don’t expect the games to reveal Chief’s face anytime soon.
“You will see his face,” Halo transmedia boss Kiki Wolfkill said of the TV series. “For some people, it’s been a moment 20 years in the making, and for other people it is something that feels very hard to imagine. We absolutely respect both sides of that fence, those who really want to see Chief’s face and those who really don’t. But for the nature of this story, it felt really important to connect with the Master Chief in a different way, and that meant showing the face.”
The Halo series was directed in part by Otto Bathurst, the director behind Black Mirror’s shocking debut episode, The National Anthem. The show also stars Californication’s Natascha McElhone as Dr. Halsey, while Jen Taylor reprises her role as Cortana. The series premieres March 24.
Paramount+ apparently has a lot of faith in and excitement for the Halo series, as it’s already announced Season 2. As for the games, Halo Infinite’s mid-season update recently arrived with changes for multiplayer and campaign alike.
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