Paramount's Halo TV series has had its fair share of ups and downs so far, but one of the showrunner's most controversial decisions up to now has been revealing no-helmet Master Chief. Yep, Halo's main star goes helmet-free at times during the show - and Chief's actor has had something to say about fans moaning about it.
Speaking to SFX Magazine (via GamesRadar), Halo actor Pablo Schreiber didn't offer much sympathy for fans who aren't keen on seeing the iconic Halo hero without his full gear on.
"People who don’t feel the helmet was necessary to come off, they’re at such an early conception of what the show could be,
In order to examine the discrepancy between these two versions of the character, you can’t tell that story without taking the helmet off. If you don’t agree with the helmet coming off in the show, you don’t like our show. So, there’s no point discussing it."
It's a blunt message admittedly, but, fair play - if this is how the showrunners want the series to go then we'll just have to see how it all plays out. It's a completely separate thing to the games at least, where Chief keeps his helmet firmly fastened on at all times.
At this point, we're mere weeks away from Halo's second TV series landing on Paramount Plus. Despite a bit more excitement surrounding Season 2's February launch at the moment, fans have already begun photoshopping Chief's helmet back on to make the promotional material 'feel' more like Halo. It'll be interesting to see how Halo The Series Season 2 is received!
What do you make of Schreiber's comments? Discuss your thoughts down in the comments below.
[source gamesradar.com]
Comments 27
The actor has also said he hated the romantic bits in the first series and fought hard against them - and appears to have won out for series 2.
So the second season definitely sounds better, the clips look good - and as for the whole helmet thing it's a bit nuts anyway, a character who keeps his armour and helmet on 24/7 is not realistic...
(That said, I do hope he keeps it on more in battles, as clearly taking it off risks the Chief becoming a sniper's dream headshot!)
This is not true and its one of the weirdest things in all of this is. At the end of Halo 4, if you complete it on legendary, Chief already takes his helmet off for a brief moment, so this is not a new thing, even for the games.
There has also been other flashbacks/glimpses of his appearance for example Fall of Reach and during the animations/comics we get a glimpse of what he looks like as well.
Also if any of you have read any of the books, Spartans regularly take off their armour, including Master Chief on the original Halo ring during Halo CE.
It seems the hardcore complainers online don't actually know much about Spartans or Master Chief at all, what a suprise
for me its very similar to the judge Dredd debate its not the same without the mask on
I like that the tv show does and is his own thing. If I want to relive the story, I just play MCC.
this show is going to get cancelled and it will be everyone elses fault but theirs
I think the reality is in the games you are always at war therefore the armour and the helmet stay on. But outside of war Spartans, including Master Chief, didn't wear these all the time. If you ever read the books, comics, or other accompanying material then you see this plenty.
He even took off his helmet in the games. In Halo Anniversary and Halo 4's legendary endings, for example, when the fight was over. The only difference is they deliberately didn't show his face.
TLDR: it doesn't makes sense to show his face, or take off his armour, in the games. But in the TV series it absolutely does.
Did we need to see his cheeks though? No! lol
It's not about helmet or no helmet. What I want is a tv show that demands undivided attention. Seasons 1 of "West World" and "True Detective" comes to mind. Even 95% of "Hunter X Hunter" fits the category. I know it's highly unrealistic.
If the actor didn't take the helmet off they wouldn't gain anything from playing the role. You would just have the I was a guy in a suit on your resume.
From the fan perspective it doesn't make much sense to hate the decision. Do they believe the helmet never comes off and master chief is just suited up 24/7?
With something like Judge Dredd I can Kind of understand, at one point in the 2000AD comics he is even shown wearing his helmet in bed (Thankfully Garland and Urban righted those wrongs in "Dredd" and made a enjoyable, yet under rated movie to boot)
But in the Halo games, Master Chief is constantly taking his helmet off (or popping it on) in front of other characters, it's only the player that doesn't get to see him.
Die hard fans will always find something to complain about. They can't accept when something isn't made exactly how they want it to be (not just Halo fans, it seems some fans of everything are like this).
Personally, as someone who watched the show and hasn't played any of the games, I really enjoyed the series, which would have certainly been a lot stranger if he never took his helmet off. There will always be differences between different adaptations of franchises like this. What works in a game won't always work in a show.
you don’t like our show.
Why yes, yes you're right. But not because of the helmet. Because of the poor writing, and completely ignoring the plot of the games.
Only having the helmet on for a cumulative 20-30 minutes for the whole season is just an added negative.
If all they did was adapt Fall of Reach, not only would you see his face countless times, but fans would have been over the moon. But instead they gave us fanfiction that seems like some horny, 14 year old, wrote.
wasn't gonna watch your show anyway bruh.
Never attack the fans.
This b.s. will lower their views and ratings.
Helmet or no helmet doesn't matter. It represents the fact that the show runners do not respect the source material and admitted so already in interviews. They laughed at the fans when admitting they they never even played the games or studied any material for it. They just wanted to snatch up an IP they could use to make trash content for subscription services. They don't care if the show is successful, as it's purpose is already fulfilled.
"Don't like don't watch" usually isn't the best attitude to have when you want to make money.
As a die hard Halo fan that fondly remembers standing in line in for Halo 3, I am in 100% support of taking the helmet off. I enjoyed the show. Oh well I guess I’m in the minority.
Correct. Don’t like the show and actor attitude isn’t gonna convince me otherwise.
If only people devoted this much energy to issues that matter. 😂
If ya don't like it, don't watch. Personally, I loved it. I played the games and I like getting a deeper look at the character.
@BrilliantBill I would definitely use "adapting" loosely here. Kinda of how the Eragon move "adapted" the book. Reach being destroyed was a small portion of the book.
Still have the non sensical Covenant adopted human. Still rocking the Spartan team from wish instead of Blue team proper. The thought of getting them axed on screen would be nice. Though I'm willing to bed their contracts are signed for more than 2 seasons which would prevent that. I will give that the cinematography looks a bit better. And no hints of that horrid CGI you saw when Cortana took over Chiefs suit in the first. But that's about it.
@Moby It takes no energy to point out the short comings of a half hearted TV show. You're not even getting a deeper look at the characters. You're getting a look a wholly original characters, some of share the same names with characters int he games/books.
@InterceptorAlpha if it's a "new" character then there isn't really a reason for the debate.
@Moby We're not talking about new characters. We're talking about things like the titular Master Chief having a totally different origin story than in the games. They never had implants that suppressed emotions either. Spartans have emotions, they're just not controlled by them.
Cortana was rewritten too. She was originally an AI clone of Haley's brain made to help her with with research that ultimately chose John as the Spartan she wanted to work with
Soren isn't even remotely the same character. He was one of the unfortunates of the Spartan program and was disfigured beyond even looking human. And was relegated to a desk job with the UNSC before having an Ephialtes arc later on in the series.
The Covenant never took human prisoners either, let alone raise one, as the prophets were scared of them undermining their Great Journey.
I can go on all day, but I won't. None of this is a surprise though as the show runners admitted to never playing the games or reading the books.
@Secryt I’m with you on this one.
I imagine he doesn’t want to be in a Pedro Pascal position where they just use your voice and get stuntmen to do all the acting. Fair play to him I say. It really doesn’t matter if he removes his helmet, boinks or even laughs at a joke because it’s an /adaptation/ of another piece of fiction. If it were the same fans would moan about that!
He's not wrong. Not sure what people expected tbh. Wether or not the show is any good has nothing to do with the near inevitability of the main character of tv show taking off a full faced helmet.
Who's attacking the fans? I just see someone who isn't blinded by his own personal interpretation of an IP challenging those who are, to think a little more broadly.
People have got so used to only seeing stuff they find agreeable, they can't take it when something isn't.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe there's ever been some Mandalorian like creed Master Chief took to not remove his helmet. I just always believed they kept the helmet on because it doesn't really matter. I haven't watched the show and it would probably be weird seeing his face, but I don't see a problem with it at all. Though if there's one thing The Mandalorian showed us is that you don't need to remove the helmet to have success, directors and actors just have to get more creative. I do believe even The Mandalorian is getting away from this.
All that being said. How is the show? I have Paramount+, just never had the desire to watch.
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