The Halo TV series will now air exclusively on streaming service Paramount+ when it launches in the first quarter of 2022.
It was previously due to be screened on Showtime, which is producing the live action series in partnership with Halo studio 343 Industries and Amblin Television.
Emmy and Tony nominee Pablo Schreiber (The Wire, Orange Is the New Black, First Man) plays Master Chief, “Earth’s most advanced warrior in the 26th century and the only hope of salvation for a civilization pushed to the brink of destruction by the Covenant, an unstoppable alliance of alien worlds committed to the destruction of humanity”.
Natascha McElhone (Californication, The Truman Show) stars as Dr. Catherine Halsey, creator of the Spartan soldiers, while Jen Taylor reprises her role as Cortana, “the most advanced AI in human history, and potentially the key to the survival of the human race”.
David Nevins, the chief creative officer at CBS and CEO of Showtime, told Deadline: “It delivers the visceral excitement of playing the game, along with a much deeper emotional experience around the Spartans, human beings who got their humanity chemically and genetically altered. The story is about reclaiming what makes them human, and therefore it’s a very powerful story.”
The series is currently shooting in Budapest, Hungary, having reportedly filmed some 60% of its first season when the Covid-19 pandemic halted production in March 2020.
Its cast also includes Emmy nominee Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo) as Soren-066, “a morally complex privateer at the fringes of human civilization whose fate will bring him into conflict with his former military masters and his old friend, the Master Chief”.
Shabana Azmi (Fire) is Office of Naval Intelligence boss Admiral Margaret Parangosky, while Bentley Kalu (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Natasha Culzac (The Witcher) and Kate Kennedy (Catastrophe) play Spartan characters new to the Halo universe.
Last year 343 Industries denied claims that distractions caused by the TV show had contributed to the game’s delay. Originally scheduled as an Xbox Series X/S launch title in November 2020, Halo Infinite will now be released in fall 2021.