According to Pablo Schreiber, who plays Master Chief in the Halo series, the video game franchise is much better suited to be a TV show than a feature film. First released in 2001, Halo: Combat Evolved has grown from a single video game into a massive franchise over the last two decades, spawning over a dozen sequel and spinoff games, a host of books, and even a couple of limited shows. Development on a Halo feature film had been ongoing since the early 2000s, with Peter Jackson at one point attached to produce, but, much to the disappointment of fans, the project was scrapped in 2006.

After its own rocky road to production and years of anticipation, Paramount+'s big-budget Halo series finally landed last month. The show broke viewership records for Paramount+ but has proven divisive amongst both critics and audiences, with many hardcore fans of the games criticizing the show for some of its departures from the source material. The show introduces audiences to Schreiber's Master Chief, aka John, and features performances from Yerin Ha, Shabana Azmi, Olive Grey, Natasha Culzac, Natascha McElhone, and, reprising her role as Cortana from the games, Jen Taylor.

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In a new interview with EW, Schreiber explains that there are inherent problems involved in trying to adapt video games into movies. According to Schreiber, many of the "swings and misses" Hollywood has experienced in the past with video game movies can be attributed to the "rich storytelling culture" present in video games not translating well to a contained two-hour movie. Ultimately, he believes that, for Halo, "there was really no other option" but TV. Check out Schreiber's full comment below:

"A lot of that is because there's such a deep, rich storytelling culture in video games. When you try to do the short, quick, sweet version of it, oftentimes you can miss the mark pretty easily."

Halo Master Chief

Considering the vastness of Halo lore has only increased with each new game and book over the last two decades, adapting the property into a movie at this point would be a monumental task. In general, the story mode in Halo games takes anywhere from six to ten or more hours, meaning a lot more story and lore can be contained within a game than could be covered in a two-hour movie. Plus, with the Halo show's decision to explore Master Chief more as a complicated character instead of the relatively blank slate he is presented as in the games, the show has a lot of ground to cover.

While not every Halo fan is on board with some of the decisions made for the show, it's clear that the creative minds behind the series have a passion and respect for the source material they're drawing from. A Halo movie is still theoretically possible, but at least as long as the show is going, it seems like a long shot. With the release of Halo and the upcoming release of HBO's The Last of Us series, maybe the industry is starting to recognize that TV shows actually lend themselves better to video game adaptations than movies. New episodes of Halo are released on Paramount+ every Thursday.

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Source: EW