Halo TV Series is Coming to Showtime

Microsoft announced today that Showtime has commissioned a 10-episode season of Halo, which is based on the game series and will be released in 2019.

“Halo (working title) will take place in the universe that first came to be in 2001, dramatizing an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant,” Microsoft’s Will Tuttle writes. “Kyle Killen (Awake) will serve as executive producer, writer, and showrunner. Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) will direct multiple episodes and also executive produce the hour-long series which enters production in early 2019.”

This is great news: Microsoft has been trying to get a Halo TV series off the ground for years, and Steven Spielberg has been attached to the product. (He’s not mentioned specifically in today’s announcement, but Spielberg’s Amblin Television is producing the show.)

And when you consider the success of cable sci-fi shows like Battlestar Galactica and even The Walking Dead, it’s not hard to imagine Halo working over the long term.

There isn’t a lot of information yet, but I suspect we’ll learn more—including about the cast—as the year progresses.

 

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Conversation 23 comments

  • T182

    28 June, 2018 - 1:56 pm

    <p>Well, hopefully it makes its way to Netflix at some point. </p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    28 June, 2018 - 2:11 pm

    <p>I just hope they’re more creative with the ship and planet names than they have been in most of the Halo supplemental materials. </p>

  • Jeffery Commaroto

    28 June, 2018 - 2:37 pm

    <p>Having the character say "Hey, Cortana" excessively would be one way to get usage numbers up for the assistant.</p>

  • gregsedwards

    Premium Member
    28 June, 2018 - 2:43 pm

    <p>And every time during the episode that Master Chief says "Hey, Cortana," my entire living room goes crazy. ?</p>

  • StevenLayton

    28 June, 2018 - 3:10 pm

    <p>Ok, two people beat me to the “Hey, Cortana” phrase already.</p>

  • Waethorn

    28 June, 2018 - 3:39 pm

    <p>Battlestar Galactica was a success, but that was years ago, and Blood and Chrome was a green screen sh*tshow. And they're even talking about possibly doing ANOTHER remake of it.</p><p><br></p><p>The Walking Dead is losing viewers left and right, and Fear the Walking Dead is using the long-overused "tell the story in reverse order" cliche just to validate killing off the main cast. Both shows have lost their lustre.</p><p><br></p><p>I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that this Halo series will just be like Star Trek Discovery, which is to say not much better of a rehash than the Wing Commander movie was to that game.</p>

    • jrickel96

      28 June, 2018 - 4:45 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#286860"><em>In reply to Waethorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>Discovery was excellent. You clearly didn't watch it.</p><p><br></p><p>Showtime invests good money is shows. You can expect movie quality effects and probably an excellent cast. Would not be surprised if this has a big budget. Showtime is also on the CBS production side. I expect quality. They've done very well with their streaming offerings.</p>

      • Hifihedgehog2

        28 June, 2018 - 5:35 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#286877"><em>In reply to jrickel96:</em></a></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote>“Discovery was excellent.”</blockquote><p><br></p><p>Most viewers would disagree. It is yet another attempt in reliving the glory days of Star Trek while falling short of TOS and TNG.</p>

        • jrickel96

          28 June, 2018 - 8:21 pm

          <blockquote><a href="#286889"><em>In reply to Hifihedgehog2:</em></a></blockquote><p>Most viewers would disagree? BS.</p><p><br></p><p>Kurtzman got signed for a five year deal to develop more Star Trek and CBS All Access saw paid subscriptions go through the roof due to it. CBS revenue from All Access more than DOUBLED thanks to Discovery and downloads of the app went up by 250%.</p><p><br></p><p>During its release, Discovery was rated as the #1 streaming show in the United States by Parrot Analytics – this takes into account streaming, social media, critics, etc. It also has been INCREDIBLY popular overseas where it is carried by Netflix. The recent report said that Discovery is the most popular streaming show in the US and the UK.</p><p><br></p><p>Discovery drove subscribers from around a million to 2.5 million by the end of February. That means Discovery led to about $12M+ a month in increased revenue for All Access. </p><p><br></p><p>If most viewers would disagree, I think they wouldn't have kept coming back to watch. I doubt that Discovery would have been the most popular streaming show in the US and UK. Yet it has been. So much for your statement.</p>

    • Stooks

      28 June, 2018 - 10:23 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#286860"><em>In reply to Waethorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>Discovery was fantastic. </p><p><br></p><p>CBS is nuts because how you must access it. I paid $10 at the end of the full seasons and binge watched all of the episodes in my 30days I paid for one month. I could have paid only $5.99 if I wanted to deal with commercials. I wanted to buy the full season on iTunes or Amazon.</p><p><br></p><p>All this closed stuff is going to do is promote piracy even more. I bet I could have gotten the entire thing on Kodi for free</p>

      • jrickel96

        28 June, 2018 - 10:31 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#286928"><em>In reply to Stooks:</em></a></blockquote><p>There are plenty of people that didn't. All Access grew by over 1.5 million subscribers and it hasn't lost them. It's on CBS to continue to create new programming.</p><p><br></p><p>I also suspect that when the current deals run out that All Access will be the only place to stream Star Trek shows and other CBS classics like Andy Griffith. They will also create new programs and have signed a new deal for more Star Trek shows. </p><p><br></p><p>For CBS, they expect to do a Star Trek miniseries that leads into Wrath of Khan (helmed by Nicholas Meyer), an animated show, and at least one other live action Star Trek show. Like Netflix, if you make enough original quality programming, you can justify the service. And CBS also has a lot of legacy programming (Twilight Zone, I Love Lucy, Odd Couple, Perry Mason, Family Ties, Brady Bunch, etc) that they can have an impressive back catalog. If CBS and Viacom every re-merge, they could also be the exclusive streaming home of Paramount's film catalog.</p>

  • slerched

    Premium Member
    28 June, 2018 - 4:29 pm

    <p>Guess I'll subscribe to a month of Showtime through YouTube TV when they have every episode available. Or I will "borrow" it from the Internet while waiting for a Blu Ray release.</p>

    • bsd107

      Premium Member
      29 June, 2018 - 1:55 am

      <blockquote><a href="#286873"><em>In reply to slerched:</em></a></blockquote><p>You won’t need a month:</p><p><br></p><p>“<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">the hour-long series”</span></p>

      • bennett_cg

        29 June, 2018 - 8:34 am

        <p>I believe that's meant to read as "a series of hour-long episodes" – though it is a it clunky.</p><blockquote><a href="#286942"><em>In reply to bsd107:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • CaedenV

    28 June, 2018 - 4:44 pm

    <p>Good job Microsoft! Create a show aimed towards the cable cutting (or more and more often generation that simply never had cable), and put it on a cable network.</p><p>#findingyouraudience</p><p>#Success</p><p><br></p><p>Seriously though, I cant wait to see it… but man is this a silly idea. I know I wont be watching it on Showtime…</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      28 June, 2018 - 6:05 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#286876"><em>In reply to CaedenV:</em></a></blockquote><p>Cable cutters can watch via the Showtime Anywhere app. No cable subscription required. Just a monthly fee which you can cancel anytime.</p>

      • Stooks

        28 June, 2018 - 10:20 pm

        <p><a href="#286900"><em>In reply to lvthunder:</em></a></p><p>Exactly me. I have cable Internet access but not their TV service or their phone service. I have both showtime and HBO apps on my Apple TV. I will watch this.</p>

  • Daekar

    28 June, 2018 - 10:13 pm

    <p>I haven't played a Halo game since Halo 2 (no Xbox since college) but unless they butcher this, I'm probably going to watch it.</p>

  • bennett_cg

    29 June, 2018 - 8:33 am

    <p>Those are some serious show-running credits. Definitely looking forward to this, just hoping it doesn't overlap (much) with season 4 of The Expanse in terms of run dates.</p>

  • Hallmanac

    Premium Member
    29 June, 2018 - 11:06 am

    <p>Just to be clear, this is a live action series and not an animated one, correct? Honestly, I've enjoyed the animated mini-flicks that have been put out by the Halo franchise.</p>

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