Halo Season 2 Update Hints at Soft Reboot, And That’s Good News
Despite the extremely underwhelming debut, the show apparently still has a chance to become a decent adaptation.
Summary:
- After the controversial reception of Halo season 1, most fans expected the project to be quietly scrapped
- To their surprise, the show was renewed for a second season, which will be released in February 2024
- Moreover, the creators have taken the criticism into account and apparently season 2 will be a soft reboot for the series
Over the past few years, we've seen a number of good or even great TV and movie adaptations of iconic video games, but unfortunately, the first season of Halo TV series, which premiered in 2022, wasn't one of them.
While the show did have some positive moments, such as some well-executed action scenes, fans didn't appreciate that it completely bastardized the story and characters for the sake of "delivering a new take on the franchise" instead of just faithfully following the plot of the original games.
Given the amount of backlash, it was expected that the show would be quietly canceled, but to everyone's surprise, it was renewed for a second season, leaving fans to wonder if the creators have learned their lesson and will fix the show's many mistakes.
Season 2 Will Take The Criticism Into Account
It seems that just might be the case, as in an interview with Collider, the show's star and creators hinted that there will be some changes from the show's underwhelming first season.
Pablo Schreiber, who portrays John-117 aka Master Chief, mentioned that there will be a huge time gap between the seasons, from four to six months, so some things that seemed certain at the end of season one may change quite a bit.
According to Otto Bathurst, one of the executive producers, this approach also allowed them to "make some quite big steps" in terms of story and make the necessary changes according to viewer feedback.
Fans believe that making season 2 a kind of soft reboot for the series is the best path the creators could have chosen after a wave of negative reactions to the show's debut, so trying to move away from season 1 as much as possible isn't a bad idea.
Halo Has A Lot To Fix In Season 2
Still, there is a lot to fix, as the show has been criticized for a myriad of reasons, most notably the treatment of its main character.
First of all, the reveal of Master Chief's face in the very first episode was incredibly anticlimactic, as it was never shown in any of the video games and has always been one of the biggest mysteries of the franchise.
Of course, it's a TV show and his face would have been shown eventually anyway, but fans would have preferred Halo to take a cue from The Mandalorian and at least make it a big reveal.
Schreiber's portrayal of Chief bore little resemblance to the original character, leading to a number of extremely controversial moments in the story, including the infamous scene where John has intercourse with the enemy spy as if he were James Bond.
Also, making him a clichéd "chosen one" who was always going to be the savior of humanity was incredibly boring and took a lot of the charm out of the character.
However, the season 1 finale hinted that John's personality would be more like his former stoic self in season 2, and this update from the creators only seems to support that theory.
In conclusion, Halo season still has a chance to become a decent adaptation of the iconic video game franchise, so fans are excited to see if the next season will redeem the series.
The first two episodes of Halo season 2 will premiere on February 8, 2024.