Taking the lead role on a TV adaptation of Halo is no easy task. Anyone who’s played a Halo game knows how incredibly deep the lore of the franchise goes. There’s a lot to know and if you’re playing as pivotal a character as Master Chief, that’s a lot of research to dig through. Luckily, for Pablo Schreiber, there was a boot camp for that.
The actor stars as Master Chief/John-117 in the upcoming Paramount+ series and admits that prior to his casting, he wasn’t all that familiar with Halo.
“I was familiar with it but more from a peripheral standpoint,” he told GameSpot. “I didn’t grow up with TV or with video games, so my only access to video games was as a teenager I would go to friend’s houses and play after school. I played Halo a few times but had never played the campaign or the story version. I only played [multiplayer].”
Once he landed the role, though, Schreiber found out just how expansive the Halo story is.
“That really was the shock when I got the job and, and went to 343 for their boot camp–which is basically just like an information download–got as much Halo, backstory, information, and history as I could in about five days,” the actor explained. Bootcamp didn’t end there, though.
“And then they sent me away with this treasure trove of research, which started and was centered around the cinematics of the game, obviously,” Schreiber continued. “From beginning to, end everything that had been established inside the video games I had at my disposal. But then beyond that, they sent me a couple of novels, they sent me some graphic novels, all the animated shorts, all the live-action films. And what I started to realize is just the extent of what has been established in terms of mythology and lore is not only overwhelming, I mean, that’s an obvious word to throw around.”
There is certainly less homework to get assigned than digesting practically everything Halo has to offer. Still, while it may have been an intimidating mountain to climb, it went a long way in helping Schreiber fully understand what he was becoming a major part of.
“What I love so much about it is how deep and rich and well thought out the whole universe really is,” he said. “So that’s where my excitement began as a creator and as a storyteller is that I was going to have access to all of this information for storytelling purposes, but also that we were going to have the honor, really, of bringing this amazing universe to so many millions of people who haven’t played the game or experienced the game. They now get to see why we love this universe so much.”
You can see that universe when Halo premieres Thursday on Paramount+. In his review of the series, Chris E. Hayner writes, “Halo is a show that shouldn’t work, in the grand scheme of things. After over seven years of development–including showrunner, director, and network changes–it’s actually surprising that it exists at all. Thankfully, it does, though. What the team behind the show has created is an interesting new way of exploring the Halo franchise. It stands on its own, away from the games, but it’s only stronger for it.”
Source: Gamespot
