Cortana’s design in the Halo live-action series is one of the several controversial changes to the source video game series that has managed to ruffle a few feathers, but so far as the game producers from 343 Industries are concerned, all of these deviations have improved the series, rather than not.
In fact, Kiki Wolfkill has just revealed that the changes to Cortana will not necessarily be limited to her physical appearance, so fans would be wiser to go in with an open mind. Here’s what the 343 exec told ComicBook.com in a new interview.
“It’s interesting because not unlike the dark underpinnings of the Spartan origins, Cortana’s origin has dark underpinnings to it,” she said. “You get a hint of that just in terms of the technological process of creating her at the end of episode 2. Yeah. I think in the show, you do get to see Cortana and Chief meeting, and you do get a different perspective on what it means for Cortana to be created to help John and to help the Master Chief because that’s her role in the games, and this is a little bit of a different perspective on that.”
While Cortana is an established character with a lot of personal dilemmas in the Halo universe, it appears that the Paramount Plus TV show is taking a different route when it comes to her dynamic with Master Chief. Wolfkill further explained how going into the origins of her creation will shape Cortana’s character in the adaptation.
“And the hope is that seeing the motivations behind her creation, and seeing her relationship with Halsey, and seeing her relationship with the Master Chief, I think that we’ll end up in a … well, I don’t want to spoil anything, but the Chief and Cortana relationship is sacred. And there’s always, always been an interesting dynamic with Halsey and Cortana and Chief. And that was something that we really enjoyed exploring more on the show.”
We’re only through the first episode, but it’s safe to say that Halo on Paramount Plus is taking certain liberties with the established Halo lore. Frankly, we’d probably also be disappointed if the series ended up being a 1:1 adaptation, so maybe the inevitable here is to suffer these moderate changes, and try to appreciate the series for what it’s trying to do.
Halo will continue on Paramount’s streaming service next week on March 30.
