Halo: First teaser for long-awaited Paramount+ series debuts
The series based on the best-selling video game has taken a long road to the ViacomCBS stream
A TV adaptation of Halo has been in the works for the better part of a decade and the first footage from the series is finally seeing the light of day.
Paramount+ has released a brief teaser for the long-awaited series, showing the first shots of Pablo Schreiber as the helmeted Spartan supersoldier Master Chief.
The teaser shows his scarred back, and the character donning his familiar gear from behind, with a female voice saying, "Hello, Master Chief."
In addition to Schreiber, the cast also features Natascha McElhone, Jen Taylor, Bokeem Woodbine, Shabana Azmi, Natasha Culzac, Olive Gray, Yerin Ha, Bentley Kalu, Kate Kennedy, Ryan McParland, Charlie Murphy and Danny Sapani.
The series, produced by Showtime, 343 Industries and Amblin Entertainment, has taken a long road to its planned 2022 release.
It was unveiled in 2014, when Xbox Entertainment Studios was nearing a deal to develop the show, with plans at the time for a first run on Showtime before it became available via Xbox game consoles.
Showtime gave it a series order in 2018, with Kyle Killen (Awake, Lone Star) as showrunner and Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) attached to direct several episodes.
Wyatt departed the series in late 2018 due to schedule conflicts, and Otto Bathurst (His Dark Materials, Peaky Blinders) took over as director.
In March 2019, Steven Kane (The Last Ship, The Closer) came aboard as co-showrunner, overseeing physical production in Budapest while Killen supervised writing and production in the US (Killen, in fact, made the request to have a co-showrunner)
Both Killen and Kane have since exited the show: Killen quietly departed late in 2019, while Kane parted ways after wrapping production.
In February of this year, ViacomCBS moved Halo from Showtime to Paramount+, just ahead of the streamer's rebranding and expansion of the former CBS All Access.
The series is slated to premiere in 2022.