This week, Xbox and Paramount showed off a brand new trailer for the upcoming Halo Season 2, which continues the story of Master Chief’s live-action exploits following Season 1’s mixed reception.The trailer, below, shows Season 2 go in a bit more of a gritty direction, with plenty of action that certainly looks improved upon Season 1’s divisive set pieces (the less said about that first-person shooter sequence the better).Surrender is not an option. The new season of #HaloTheSeries premieres February 8, exclusively on @ParamountPlus. pic.twitter.com/61q2A8s7uJ— Halo (@Halo) January 11, 2024 But it’s Master Chief’s helmet that has become the hottest talking point — and that’s because he’s not wearing it.Halo stars Pablo Schreiber (American Gods) as Master Chief, and we see his face a fair bit in the trailer. In fact, one action sequence sees John-117 fighting the Covenant without any armour at all.All this is in direct contrast to the video game franchise upon which the series is based. In the Halo games, Master Chief never takes his helmet off and almost always appears in full armour. In the video games, created by Bungie and now developed by Microsoft-owned 343 Industries, Master Chief acts as a conduit through which the player lives out their sci-fi heroics. His visor is one we look out from, not at. Master Chief’s visor is iconic, perhaps the most recognisable image from the franchise.Some of the negative reaction to the Halo TV show and this latest trailer comes from this place. Fans of the video games are saying across social media and on forums that they want to see more of Master Chief doing Master Chief things with his helmet on, not less.The top post on the Halo subreddit is exactly that. “How did nobody at the marketing department realise that this was a bad thing?” it wonders, pointing to new posters of the show that feature Schreiber’s Master Chief without his helmet on. Some fans have even tweaked the posters to put Master Chief’s helmet back on.If this debate sounds familiar, it’s because fans said similar things when Master Chief first took his helmet off in the very first episode of Season 1. In March 2022, Schreiber explained why the decision was made for Master Chief to remove his helmet, saying: “One thing I learned very early on is that there’s as many different opinions in the Halo universe as there are Halo fans. So obviously, you’re not going to be able to please everybody. But what I would say is that we are tailoring an entertainment experience that’s tailored to the medium that it’s for.”Image credit: Paramount.”When you play a first-person shooter, the way that a character is developed is very different than what’s necessary when you’re making long-form television,” Schreiber added. “To go on this journey with your protagonist, you’re not going to be able to bring an audience along in a long-form story without having access to a character’s face, which tells you what they’re feeling, how they think about everything. That access to a character’s emotional life, over the course of time, is what makes you empathise and connect with a character.”I’m sorry, but it’s the only choice for long-form storytelling in television. What I would say to anybody who disagrees with that, I totally respect that opinion. But it’s a pretty basic place to start when you’re talking about making a television show of quality.”Halo is in an interesting place, with Halo Infinite failing to hit the heights of previous games in the famed series despite recent positive sentiment from fans. The Halo community is anxiously awaiting the next entry after 343 pretty much left Infinite’s story behind following its troubled launch back in 2021. Meanwhile, the Halo TV show has some work to do getting fans on-side.Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
