TV Guide recently spoke to Showtime’s President and CEO, David Nevins, and asked what was up with that Halo series that got announced forever ago. It’s “still in very active development,” he said.
The executive also stressed that he’s seen scripts, something you’d hope might have happened in the four and a half years since the television adaptation was originally announced. If you’ll travel back in time with me Mr. Caffeine-style for a moment, remember that it was E3 of 2013 when 343 Industries, the studio who took over development of Halo after Bungie, revealed a collaboration was in the works between it, Microsoft, and Steven Spielberg to bring Halo to cable TV. They even went through the trouble of getting Spielberg to do a short pre-recorded segment discussing the collaboration wherein he proceeded to talk about his love of the medium, especially Pong.
After hearing very little more in the proceeding years, most of us had given up on ever seeing the project come to fruition. But never say never. After all, Nevins has seen scripts!
TV Guide followed up with another Showtime executive, Gary Levine, about the the series’ prospects as well. “I’m encouraged by what we’ve seen so far,” he said, adding that development was still moving forward and would satisfy both Halo fans and regular viewers. But while we’ve had both the live-action web series Halo: Forward Unto Dawn as well as the longer Halo: Nightfall starring Luke Cage’s Mike Colter, a premium cable adaption appears to remain mostly vaporware at the moment.
After all, Halo 5: Guardians came out in 2015, two years after work on a TV series was made public. And if there was ever a time to air a pulpy, action horror sci-fi show based on the games, that probably would have been the it. Microsoft even agreed, saying that year ahead of the game’s release that it was working under the assumption the show would air that same fall. Sadly it was not to be.
Then just last summer a Microsoft Spokesperson and representative of 343 Industries told the site AR12Gaming that “progress continues” and the wait simply had to do with ensuring the show was done “right” in coordination with Spielberg and Showtime. Maybe it’ll end being pegged to the release of the next Halo game, although who knows when that will be. Especially since 343 Industries doesn’t seem poised to announce anything about a Halo 6 anytime soon.