On Thursday, the Halo TV series finally arrived on Paramount+, debuting its premiere episode, titled Contact, and fans have been enjoying to see the live-action series bring Master Chief to life. One of the final scenes in the first episode of the show features the protagonist Master Chief removing his helmet to earn the trust of Quan, a young woman whose home was destroyed by the alien group known as the Covenant.
In the Halo TV show, Master Chief is played by American Gods star Pablo Schreiber, and while many fans already expected that Master Chief will remove his helmet off in the show, they didn't expect he would do it this early. This is the first time the character has removed his armor in the franchise's 20-year history, and some fans of the video games have criticized the show's decision.
Why did the Halo TV series reveal Master Chief's face?
Kiki Wolfkill, 343 Industries’ Studio Head of Transmedia and Halo's executive producer, explained to Comicbook.com why revealing Master Chief's face was important for the story Halo will tell.
"I will say that objectively was a fan of his work before he was proposed for this role and loved the idea from the get go," Wolfkill told the outlet. "And after meeting him, he is an incredibly committed and passionate person. And he was so excited and curious about the character and curious about the things that people love about the character. And there was such an intensity and such a focus in how he approached bringing Chief to life. But also he has the ability to project both strength and vulnerability at the same time. And that was so critical for the John part of the Master Chief character. And he has incredible physicality. You see him in Den of Thieves, right? And his ability to move with precision and incredible muscle control and spatial awareness is super important to being able to both wear the suit well, move in the suit well, but also to act through the suit. So it really was the perfect melding of physical and creative intellectual."
Wolfkill also told IGN Fest: "For some people, it’s been a moment 20 years in the making, and for other people it is something that feels very hard to imagine. We absolutely respect both sides of that fence, those who really want to see Chief’s face and those who really don’t. But for the nature of this story, it felt really important to connect with the Master Chief in a different way, and that meant showing the face.”
The removal of Master Chief's helmet is an important moment never shown in the popular Xbox/PC video games.
Watch the trailer for the Halo TV series below:
The first episode of the Halo TV show is now available to stream on Paramount+. You can read more details about the show here.
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