The second season of Halo has arrived. For those that were hoping that in Season 2, Master Chief would keep his helmet on more, after unmasking during Season 1 now know that’s simply not going to happen. If anything, Chief is going to take off his helmet more and even spend chunks of episodes in normal civilian clothing. It’s something star Pablo Schreiber has spoken about previously, though he fears his words were misinterpreted and wanted to clear the air.
“There’s a group of people that would prefer that the helmet never came off, right? And yeah, there have been some quotes that have been attributed to me that I don’t think, you know, display my exact words correctly,” he told GameSpot. “And maybe [they] were taken out of context. But just to be clear, you know, I love acting with the helmet. I love and respect helmet acting. And there’s obviously been many great examples of it from The Mandalorian to Star Wars and many successful versions of it.”
Pointing out The Mandalorian is an interesting tactic, given that the Star Wars series on Disney+ does unmask its titular character, but only for larger series moments. When his helmet comes off, you know something big is about to happen. Of course, it also helps film the series, even when star Pedro Pascal isn’t there to wear the helmet.
For Chief, the helmet comes off fairly often, which means it rarely feels like a monumental moment. Regardless, as much as he appreciates “helmet acting,” the actor is still pushing back on the notion that he shouldn’t take it off.
“Is it possible to make a version of the show where the helmet doesn’t come off? Absolutely,” he admits. “Would it be a show that was closer to the experience of the video games? Probably. But that’s not the show that I was hired to make.”
Schreiber continues, “At the end of the day, the show that I was hired to make was a show about the dual aspects of the character, Master Chief and John, and tailored for the medium of TV where you weren’t worried about spoiling the aspects of the character that were kept mysterious.”
While he understands that fans see themselves in the faceless Master Chief, he and the show’s creative team don’t believe that would work for the series. That said, keep in mind this Halo exists within its own canon. Think of it like James Gunn’s take on DC Studios going forward. The Halo games, novels, and graphic novels are the main line. Halo on Paramount+ is basically this universe’s Elseworlds.
And in this alternate Halo universe, Schreiber wants to dig deep into Master Chief to make him a fully formed character on the show. “I was hired to make a show that involves this cracking open of the character and the dual aspects of his personality–supersoldier Master Chief, well-known across the galaxy by all humanity, considered by many to be the savior of humanity, and what it felt like to be a person just beginning to experience their own humanity within the shell of that character that everybody knows.”
Ultimately, perhaps we should be thankful for the removable helmet. That very bad Season 1 sex scene starring Master Chief would have somehow been much worse if he was in his Spartan helmet the entire time.
New episodes of Halo release Thursdays on Paramount+.
