We finally got a full trailer for Paramount+’s upcoming Halo TV series, and it really seems to be taking a page or two from the Mandalorian with its bleak desert exteriors, Pablo Schreiber’s performance as a faceless-yet-charismatic future fighting gun man, and the seeming set-up of a Lone Wolf and Cub-style friendship between the Chief and a human rebel played by Yerin Ha.
It looks like the series is focusing on the Chief’s battles with the Covenant prior to the events of the first game, and it’ll be interesting to see how closely it follows established series lore versus breaking off and telling its own story with the setting. The trailer begins with the Chief fighting human rebels like the ones sketched out in the series’ backstory and novels, but the war with the Covenant seems to be a well-established conflict as in the games. Captain Keyes has been cast in the series with actor Danny Sapani filling the role, so you could see the initial events of Halo: Combat Evolved making for a compelling finale or even mid-season surprise.
The trailer teases some interesting stories, including emphasizing the Spartans’ angst at the experimental procedures which turned them into such fun FPS protagonists. Dr. Catherine Halsey, here portrayed by Natascha McElhone, muses in narration about the Spartans’ pliability from their training while one of the Spartans, Soren-066 played by Bokeem Woodbrine, laments what was done to them. The trailer also shows off a storyline featuring what looks like a human collaborator with the Covenant meeting with the prophets of High Charity, an interesting angle on the series’ longtime antagonists yet to be featured in the games.
If nothing else, it certainly looks like some good flashy sci-fi fun, and we’ll be able to see what surprises the show has in store when it’s made available on the Paramount+ streaming service on March 24.
