The Halo TV show, which for years floundered in pre-production, is suddenly moving forward with impressive speed. There's perhaps no better symbol of this than a photo posted by the official Halo Twitter account this past Thursday. The photo features Master Chief actor Pablo Schreiber standing in front of a height chart while holding Chief's iconic helmet. The tweet lists the photo as a throwback to when Schreiber "told us he was gonna wear something nice."
The photo offers a first look at the Halo TV series' star associated with his upcoming role. It may not feature Schreiber in the suit or helmet, but it allows fans to visualize what the Halo TV show might be working towards. That the photo is taken in front of a height chart also adds some energy to it. Master Chief in both the games and books is known to be 7 feet tall. Schreiber doesn't quite reach 7 feet, but he's impressively close. He may be as close as real-life can get to the height and build of Master Chief.
Following the Twitter post showing Schreiber next to the Master Chief helmet, the Halo TV show production made a further announcement. Joining Pablo Schreiber will be six more castmates. Dr. Catherine Halsey, the creator of the Spartan super-soldier program, will be played by Natascha McElhone of Californication. Bokeem Woodbine of Fargo will play Soren-066, another participant in the Spartan program, and Shabana Azmi of Fire will play Admiral Margaret Parangosky.
Joining those familiar characters from the Halo universe will be three all-new characters. Bentley Kalu of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Natasha Culzac of The Witcher, and Kate Kennedy of Catastrophe will be playing Spartan Vannak-134, Spartan Riz-028, and Spartan Kai-125, respectively. How this squad of Spartan super soldiers will be interacting with Master Chief remains to be seen.
With a star-studded cast, the Halo TV show is positioning itself to be a meaningful recreation of the Halo story while also pursuing storylines as-yet-untold. It's crazy to think that the Halo TV adaptation was first announced in May 2013, the same event where the Xbox One console was first announced. At the time, the series was said to be a platform-agnostic show with Steven Spielberg as an executive producer. Now the show is coming to Showtime for a 10-episode season produced, written, and run by Kyle Killen, whose previous work includes Awake and Lone Star.
There's still plenty of production left before the Halo TV show can start filming, let alone before it can debut. Yet the Halo TV show has never been this close to being real, which should be very exciting for Halo fans.