The Live-Action Halo TV Show Gets its First Trailer

[Steven Bogos]

The Live-Action Halo TV Show Gets its First Trailer

Halo: Nightfall launches on November 11, and is included in The Master Chief Collection.

Remember that TV and sports [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124210-The-Baby-Has-A-Name-Xbox-One], Microsoft announced that Halo would be getting its own TV spin-off series. We didn't hear too much about it in the following year, but now, we have an official trailer and a release date. Halo: Nightfall will launch on November 11, and be included in The Master Chief Collection.

The trailer sets up the plot of the series: the covenant have developed some kind of super virus that kills only humans, and a commander has to put together a rag-tag team of ruffians on a last-ditch mission to wipe out all traces of it. There's also a guy who "used to be a Spartan," but no sign of the Master Chief.

The series is being produced by legendary sci-fi director Ridley Scott, and does seem to have a very high standard of production values to it. It certainly looks really cool and slick, so we'll just have to see if the actual story is interesting enough to keep us going.

You'll also be able to watch the series' first episode on Twitch [http://www.twitch.tv/xbox], as it will debut as part of Microsoft's "Halofest" live event on November 11.

Source: Microsoft [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe5iGKfl_ws]

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[Saulkar]

Looks alright but there is one problem I have had with the Halo series and a few friends (who are not bothered by it) have noticed it as well. The series seems to feel a little bit more militant with each installment post Halo 3 whereas it previous felt like a heroic science fantasy Space Epic. Now militant is not bad, I like me some ARMA, but it is not what I look for in the Halos but I am going to give the Tv series a chance.

P.S. I really like the Sangheli and since it appears that this show is post Halo 3 then I really hope that there are some on the Human's side as well. That would be dope.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

There's also a guy who "used to be a Spartan,"

What, you mean as in 'I used to be a genetically enhanced, cybernetically augmented super-soldier, but then I got better'?

Looks quite cool actually. I take it this is going to be an XBL stream-only deal, or are episodes going to be appearing in (for example) Halo:Waypoint?

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I always take "produced by" as "being vaguely financed by", therefor not an indication of quality or style.
Is this not being aired on TV then? I thought TV shows did that

 

[fix-the-spade]

Looks quite cool actually. I take it this is going to be an XBL stream-only deal, or are episodes going to be appearing in (for example) Halo:Waypoint?

No doubt it will appear on other outlets after a short while in the same Forward Unto Dawn ultimately did.

My principal worry about this is that Microsoft will simply lose interest like they did with Spartan Ops and that this will just stop mid way through the plot. In fact that's my main complaint about Halo since 3 came out, they seem to be constantly establishing new groups of characters and beginning to develop them, only to suddenly be introducing and developing entirely new sets of characters whilst pretending the last bunch never existed.

Or maybe that's just me.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I dunno about this. Forward Unto Dawn started off promising, but then it pulled the "planet killed in a night by bad CGI needler shots" halfway through the series before a half assed Master Chief Cosplay took any sense of drama out of the story.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Looks quite cool actually. I take it this is going to be an XBL stream-only deal, or are episodes going to be appearing in (for example) Halo:Waypoint?

No doubt it will appear on other outlets after a short while in the same Forward Unto Dawn ultimately did.

My principal worry about this is that Microsoft will simply lose interest like they did with Spartan Ops and that this will just stop mid way through the plot. In fact that's my main complaint about Halo since 3 came out, they seem to be constantly establishing new groups of characters and beginning to develop them, only to suddenly be introducing and developing entirely new sets of characters whilst pretending the last bunch never existed.

Or maybe that's just me.

I think maybe they're trying multiple feelers to sound out fan reaction to a protagonist who isn't the Chief in order to figure out which way to take the franchise. Unfortunately there are just too many fans who unwilling to accept a new Halo 'lead' and so they have to keep searching. /totalguessfoundedonpurespeculation

The hope with this one though is that Ridley Scott, not Microsoft, will be driving this project so I reckon it's got a more than fair shout of coming to fruition.

 

[Ambitiousmould]

Well judging by this, the acting and dialogue look stonkingly bad, and the story looks pretty naff too. Hopefully I'm wrong though, and I'll certainly give it a shot. I mean Forward Unto Dawn was really good, but then again this is made by different people. I suppose we'll see.

 

[MatParker116]

There's also a guy who "used to be a Spartan,"

What, you mean as in 'I used to be a genetically enhanced, cybernetically augmented super-soldier, but then I got better'?

Looks quite cool actually. I take it this is going to be an XBL stream-only deal, or are episodes going to be appearing in (for example) Halo:Waypoint?

Locke refers to him as "Colonel" and the Spartan 4's were volunteers so I imagine he got promoted out of the field.

 

[MiskWisk]

Already complaining about lore here. The Covenant just aren't smart enough to field a bio-weapon that advanced. They are the equivalent of cavemen in a tank. Yeah, they'll be able to figure out some stuff like how to drive it but they won't know how to use it best. They will refuse to upgrade or improve their current tech because it would be sacrilegious. Hell, they're AI's are fragments of human AI's they stole and put together with digital duct tape and now you are expecting me to believe they would be able to develop and field a bio-weapon they would have had to come up with themselves?

Anyway, looks okay. Probably will only read a summary of events though.

 

[DazBurger]

There's also a guy who "used to be a Spartan,"

What, you mean as in 'I used to be a genetically enhanced, cybernetically augmented super-soldier, but then I got better'?

Looks quite cool actually. I take it this is going to be an XBL stream-only deal, or are episodes going to be appearing in (for example) Halo:Waypoint?

Locke refers to him as "Colonel" and the Spartan 4's were volunteers so I imagine he got promoted out of the field.

Unless he was "just" a Spartan I, as Sgt Johnson were. He seems too old to be a I.I, III or even IV.
And while he could be a II agewise, it seems unlikely, unless he was one of the surviving "rejects", some of whom got into other parts of the UNSC.

 

[Darklord008]

I've always been a bit of a Halo fanboy, so I may be a bit biased, but I thought that trailer looked really good, and I am super hyped for this thing now.

Also, when the iconic Halo music kicked in, I got entirely too excited.

 

[Velociferocks]

Sad to see the factual errors in the article,

Remember that awful Xbox One reveal event? Well, among all of the TV and sports, Microsoft announced that Halo would be getting its own TV spin-off series.

The series is being produced by legendary sci-fi director Ridley Scott,

not the same thing.
Nightfall is a "Digital feature" (like Forward unto Dawn) not a television series, there is a television series in the works by Steven Spielberg for Showtime and Xbox Live.
Sorry, I just take my Halo more sincerely.

 

[BNguyen]

There's also a guy who "used to be a Spartan,"

What, you mean as in 'I used to be a genetically enhanced, cybernetically augmented super-soldier, but then I got better'?

Looks quite cool actually. I take it this is going to be an XBL stream-only deal, or are episodes going to be appearing in (for example) Halo:Waypoint?

maybe the guy was court marshaled, lost his status as a Spartan or like Johnson he was a Spartan 1 who retired if the show, like a poster above said takes place after Halo 3.

 

[Baldr]

There's also a guy who "used to be a Spartan,"

What, you mean as in 'I used to be a genetically enhanced, cybernetically augmented super-soldier, but then I got better'?

Looks quite cool actually. I take it this is going to be an XBL stream-only deal, or are episodes going to be appearing in (for example) Halo:Waypoint?

Locke refers to him as "Colonel" and the Spartan 4's were volunteers so I imagine he got promoted out of the field.

Unless he was "just" a Spartan I, as Sgt Johnson were. He seems too old to be a I.I, III or even IV.
And while he could be a II agewise, it seems unlikely, unless he was one of the surviving "rejects", some of whom got into other parts of the UNSC.

I agree, to old be a Spartan IV, and too slim of a chance to be a Spartan III(most of these Spartans died before even the events of Halo 1). That means he is either a Spartan I or Spartan II. My guess is a Spartan II reject who had some defect that kept him from using the MJOLNIR armor.

 

[Gali]

Really excited for this. I like the idea of telling the backstory of a new character through a series. Made me appreciate Lasky in Halo 4 more.

Already complaining about lore here. The Covenant just aren't smart enough to field a bio-weapon that advanced. They are the equivalent of cavemen in a tank. Yeah, they'll be able to figure out some stuff like how to drive it but they won't know how to use it best. They will refuse to upgrade or improve their current tech because it would be sacrilegious. Hell, they're AI's are fragments of human AI's they stole and put together with digital duct tape and now you are expecting me to believe they would be able to develop and field a bio-weapon they would have had to come up with themselves?

Anyway, looks okay. Probably will only read a summary of events though.

How do we know this is a Covenant weapon? Isn't this an assumption at the moment? Did I miss something?


'Caveman in a tank' is really spot on. I like that phrase. The Covenant was only so advanced because they used Forerunner technology (not to it's full potential though) and Engineers to progress to a certain point and then stopped because religion and lazyness. Some species, like the Brutes, did not even discover space flight when they joined the Covenant (not voluntarily). As far as I know the Prophets are the only really advanced race. I love how the lore between H3 and after H4 shows that the former Covenant races are now pretty much fucked because they lack technicians, scientists, scholars etc. - heck, the Elites even have to relearn aspects of agriculture. I will be interesting how this will turn out in the long run.

 

[MiskWisk]

How do we know this is a Covenant weapon? Isn't this an assumption at the moment? Did I miss something?

Hmm, I suppose in the trailer it does say "They got their hands on a compound that kills humans and nothing else." at 0:44 so I suppose it might not be a weapon and something they stumbled upon so that would excuse the whole weapon thing. If they do end up saying they developed it though I'm not going to be to happy.

 

[Dalek Caan]

How do we know this is a Covenant weapon? Isn't this an assumption at the moment? Did I miss something?

Hmm, I suppose in the trailer it does say "They got their hands on a compound that kills humans and nothing else." at 0:44 so I suppose it might not be a weapon and something they stumbled upon so that would excuse the whole weapon thing. If they do end up saying they developed it though I'm not going to be to happy.

It could be something the Didact made during his "Humans are evil and lets kill them all Phase" and he gave it to the splinter group of the Sangheili who still believe in the Covenants ideals. That or it's a naturally occurring thing that just happens to kill humans. You only have to look at earth to see that there's a 101 things out there that want to kill us.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I always take "produced by" as "being vaguely financed by", therefor not an indication of quality or style.
Is this not being aired on TV then? I thought TV shows did that

Indeed "produced by" is near meaningless. Steven Spielberg produced the live action Transformers movies, and those were vapid CGI tech demos with crude frat humor added in, not something Spielberg is well known for. And Mel Brooks produced (but left his name off of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fly_%281986_film%29]) The Fly (the family friendly David Croneberg masterpiece). That one was definitely not the typical Brooks comedy.

Even worse than all that, Ridley Scott directed Prometheus, the movie that was supposed to live up his work on Alien, even if he changed his mind and said it was only "loosely' connected to Alien. For some reason, he didn't throw out the script where every character tosses the idiot ball around so hard they all appear to have brain damage from the concussions. Halo fans should be happy he is just producing.

For your second point: I thought this was one of those exclusives for "Xbox TV." MS probably just kept this going since it's an ad for Halo games and they sunk enough money into it before realizing TV shows are what is going to sell consoles.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

I was almost okay with this until I remembered they never use Bungie's models for anything. I don't have many fond memories from Halo Wars or Halo 4, and a lot of the expanded universe took me too far away from the places my imagination made up when I was playing the original games.

What I'd really like to see is a tv series about the events of Halo: ODST. Every episode could start with the Rookie finding clues about what we were going to see, and then we'd get to see it and it would be cool. I don't know, I just like the feel of that game more than the way the newer stuff has gone.