More than five episodes in, last week’s Halo outing finally gave viewers a first look at the titular Halo Arrays by taking Master Chief there in a haze-induced vision.
In a recent chat with ComicBook, showrunner Steven Kane explains the decision to create that mental bond between Master Chief and Makee, with the Halo rings serving as their common denominator in the Silver Timeline.
“It kind of happened organically,” he said. “We were trying to figure out a way to build a bond between John and Makee that didn’t seem rushed or forced. They start off, she thinks he’s the demon, she’s there to kill him. He doesn’t know about her. Then, when he meets her, he doesn’t trust her. I wanted to sort of figure out a way to get them to relate because they are very much the same. They’re in many ways orphaned, adopted by people or creatures who use them as we’ll figure out, as we’ll learn more. We sort of established that connection between them when he touches the artifact on Eridanus, and she’s in Madrigal and she feels it, so that was happening.”
The Paramount Plus live-action series is also pushing to introduce viewers to the concept of “Reclaimers,” individuals bestowed with the power to communicate with the arrays. As Kane explains:
“I thought we should blow their minds and blow our minds, and so that necessity to find a way to get them to be convinced that, ‘Wait a minute, we need to talk about this. This is something that we have in common that’s huge.’ Now I know in canon, all humans are to a certain degree Reclaimers, but even within that, there are certain people who are more Reclaimer than other, I guess. It occurred to me, I said, ‘What if, instead of just a connection that they feel physically, what if they both teleport mentally to this shared place and get a symbol of what this artifact is calling them towards, and have them meet there, and blow their minds and blow our minds at the same time?'”
Halo has proven to be a controversial live-action take on the popular science military franchise given all the changes the powers that be made to Master Chief and his world. And yet, the show is touching down on all the important story beats and establishing an intricate and solid narrative foundation for its future, so it’ll definitely be exciting to see how all of this unravels in the remainder of season 1 and beyond.
Halo returns with another episode this Thursday on Paramount Plus.
