Don’t expect the story of the games

Video game adaptations are often a double-edged sword. They have the potential for great success, as a fan community often already exists. However, she often has a pretty concrete idea of ​​how the world should look and how the characters should behave. Maybe that’s why the creators of the Halo series say directly: “We are creating a new timeline.”

Halo: The series reinvents the history of the games

The first real trailer for the series adaptation of the popular shooter series was recently released Halo. In addition to the fact that Cortana is not blue enough for most fans, the trailer makes it clear that the story will differ from the games, as announced. Those responsible speak of the “Silver Timeline”, i.e. a separate timeline in which the series will play.

What is the Silver Timeline?

Blue becomes silver – in the Halo series, the Master Chief does not lead the Fireteam Blue, but Fireteam Silver. Hence the name of the new timeline. This new version of the Halo universe contains all the known elements of the canon surrounding the games, books and comics, but differs from them in a few details. The creative director of the franchise, Frank O’Connor, even explains this decision in great detail in a blog post on the official website halowaypoint.com. (Source: Halo Waypoint).

The Halo series differs from the games in a few ways, so the creative minds behind the production more freedom to have. One is to introduce a new audience to the franchise and the other is to not just repeat itself with the narrative. In order to the old canon remains intact, the new timeline was created. In addition, stories in video games are simply told differently than in series, they have to be adapted to the mediumto work at all. A good example of this is the narrative perspective. The games mostly tell the story from the Master Chief’s perspective and that too from the first person point of view. That wouldn’t work for a series.

What’s changing in the Halo series universe?

The trailer at least gives a first impression of how the story is changing. In the series, Master Chief appears to gain knowledge of the ringworld of Halo through touching an artifact, and the trailer ends with his words: “Find Halo, end the war.” In the first game of the Halo: Combat Evolved series, the ship Pillar of Autumn accidentally stumbles upon the first Halo ring while fleeing the Alliance. The Master Chief is only brought out of hibernation at this point.

The Halo series is expected to be released on March 24, 2022 with the streaming provider currently only available in America Paramount+. Previous Paramount+ productions have already been licensed for the German market by Netflix or Amazon Prime. However, since the Paramount+ offer will be through this year sky should also be available with us, it is possible that Halo will only appear there.