While it was teased in December, the first full trailer for the upcoming Halo TV series was just released and it looks, if nothing else, very expensive.
The two-minute trailer jumps us around a bit, but one thing is clear: this isn’t the Halo story most have come to know over the last 20 years. While the basics are obviously the same, and the look of the series is incredibly faithful to Bungie and 343's work, pretty much everything in terms of narrative here is playing out differently than it did in the games.
The way the Halo is discovered and what everyone knows about it? Different. Master Chief being the last surviving Spartan? Nope! It also looks like a lot of story development from later games in the series, from human uprising stuff through to a distrust of Master Chief’s power and intentions from UNSC leadership, is also making its way into the show’s plot.
Another note: please, for the love of all that is good, cut it out with the slowed-down pop song covers in trailers. It’s been 16 years since Mad World. Halo has wonderful music! One of the most iconic scores in video game history! You could have just used that!
And finally, I’m shocked by how expensive this whole thing looks. TV series, even those in the Marvel and Star Wars universes, can come across looking a little cheap in comparison to their cinematic siblings, because that’s just the reality of TV budgets vs the amount of screentime required. This show looks like it has none of those concerns.
If you’re wondering who some of those faces/voices are, Pablo Schreiber is Master Chief, Natascha McElhone is his war criminal mum Dr. Halsey, the girl he saves is Yerin Ha, and Irish actor Charlie Murphy is Makee, a human who has been raised by the Covenant.