Halo may finally be getting the big-budget TV show it deserves. Showtime has picked up the Halo television series for a 10-episode first season. CEO of Showtime, David Nevins, announced today that this will be their “most ambitious series ever.”
The project will be spearheaded by showrunner Kyle Killen of Awake fame. Rupert Wyatt, director of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, has been tapped to direct multiple episodes of the first season. Famed director Steven Spielberg is still attached to the project as a producer.
We don’t know much about the series as of now beyond a brief description the studio provided.
An epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.
It is yet to be seen how much of the established lore and characters will carry over to the series. The show has the opportunity to pull from a slew of Halo video games but may choose to focus on smaller, more personal stories if the statement is any indicator.
This announcement comes after multiple attempts to get the Halo franchise onto the small screen. Halo: Nightfall came out back in 2014 to poor reception. Spielberg originally started work on the series way back in 2013, but the show was assumed to be canceled after no news came out of the project until this year.
One has to ask if this is too little too late? The series hit peak popularity around the release of the third game, but interest has slowly declined since 343 Industries took over for Bungie. Could the television series be enough to get the series back on track before Halo: Infinite? We will have to wait a while to see, as the show starts production in early 2019.
