In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our revitalized TV and streaming podcast, co-hosts Mike DeAngelo and Rodrigo Perez dig into Paramount+’s long-gestating sci-fi epic, “Halo.” Based on the video game franchise of the same name, the show takes place in the 26th century amidst a war between humanity and an alien race called The Covenant. At the center of the story is Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber), a genetically enhanced super-soldier who uncovers an artifact that changes the course of his life, and potentially all life as he knows it (read our review here).
At the top of the episode, our hosts discuss the ups and downs of the first two “Halo” episodes that were screened for critics, as well as the epic journey of adapting the popular video game title for a modern television audience.
After the conversation, Pablo Schreiber stops by to discuss taking on the role of Master Chief and having to audition after thinking he had the part already.
“I got involved in 2018. Rupert Wyatt was attached to direct the first couple of episodes. Rupert and I had tried to work together on a couple of other projects, but it didn’t work out, and so he pulled me in on this one.” Schreiber shared. “And then, I got word that he was pulling out because of scheduling and couldn’t make it work time-wise. And so then, there was a dead few months where I didn’t hear anything. Then Otto Bathurst took over for the first couple episodes, and I was asked to come audition for him in London, so I came over – it was the spring of 2019. I flew to London and auditioned for him and found out about an hour later that I got the role (again).”
Of course, this week saw the gaming community and Halo fans up in arms about the fact that Master Chief, a character that never removes his helmet (no, not that other sci-fi character played by Pedro Pascal), takes his helmet off in the series. Pablo talked about the choice and why it was clear they needed to make it.
“We knew this coming in, right? We knew that it would be a divisive moment because there’s a lot of love for the project and a lot of love for Chief. [As a player] You’re kind of a co-owner of the character and a co-creator of the experience – every person who has ever played the video game has played as Chief and felt like they’re him, and that’s the set-up of the character. He is a cipher and kind of kept vague in the character description and how it’s laid out because they want you to fill in those places of his personality with your own, but it’s very different from a TV show. So, in order to make a long-form TV show that is going to hold an audience’s interest over multiple seasons, we hope, it really did feel like a necessary move to do it.” Schreiber said.
Also, with Pablo breaking into the action-hero role category, the topic of his favorite superhero does come up, and I hear Marvel might be looking for someone to play this one very soon.
“I’ve had a bunch of discussions with Marvel at certain points in my career. We’ve never been able to find the right thing at the right time, but I’d certainly be open to that.” Schreiber shared.
Inevitably, being Canadian himself, the topic of Wolverine comes up, and Schreiber was very enthusiastic about the character. “Oh goodness, yeah. Well, we’ve flirted with that one for a while. That would be fantastic and would certainly be a dream casting. He’s actually my favorite hero from a child. He was always my favorite comic book, so yeah. I’ve had a long, long flirtation with that guy.”
“Halo” debuts on Paramount+ on Thursday, March 24th. You can listen to the entire conversation below:
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