It appears nobody — not the main actors nor the showrunners — has any clue what they want to do with the Paramount Plus sci-fi/action series “Halo.”
The show, which is based on the beloved Xbox series of video games, has only had a single season (the second season is slated to begin Feb. 8) of nine episodes but has already become a huge source of contention among fans.
Even apart from any plot contrivances or shaky acting (something most shows these days are guilty of), fans had plenty of issues with the way that the main character of Halo, a masked super soldier known as Master Chief, was presented.
In the games, Master Chief is a paragon of hope. He is a symbol of courage to humanity amid overwhelming odds and indescribable cosmic horrors.
In the show, he is… none of that. Not really.
No, rather, the show tried to humanize Master Chief and that choice just did not resonate with fans.
One way in which the show tried to humanize Master Chief was to introduce a love interest that was not present in the games.
That ultimately culminated in an awkward sex scene (there was nothing particularly graphic about the scene, as it was more a montage of suggestive images than anything you’d find on PornHub)… and apparently not even the man portraying Master Chief liked the scene.
Speaking to SFX magazine via GamesRadar, Master Chief actor Pablo Schreiber lamented the entire scene — and made it clear he originally wanted nothing to do with it.
Did you watch “Halo”?
“The decision to make the connection between Makee and John a romantic connection was a huge mistake,” Schreiber said, referring to a new character in Makee and Master Chief’s designation as John-117.
The lead actor would continue: “I felt it was a huge mistake at the time and I argued against it and fought against it. But I am who I am. I don’t write the scripts. I only give my opinion.
“It wasn’t listened to.”
Of course, it’s not just one risque scene that had fans upset.
The other major issue — and bear with me because it sounds dumb — fans have with the portrayal of Master Chief involves his helmet.
In short, people felt that there was way too much of John-117 running around without the iconic Master Chief helmet on.
It may sound asinine, but imagine a Spider-Man movie where Spidey spends the entire runtime without his mask on.
It’s jarring, to say the least.
Well, on that, Schreiber is telling fans to get over it.
“People who don’t feel the helmet was necessary to come off, they’re at such an early conception of what the show could be,” Schreiber told SFX.
“In order to examine the discrepancy between these two versions of the character [Chief and John-117], you can’t tell that story without taking the helmet off,” the actor continued.
A clearly miffed Schreiber added: “If you don’t agree with the helmet coming off in the show, you don’t like our show. So, there’s no point discussing it.”
