Warning! The following contains spoilers for Halo Season 2 episode "Visegrad." Read at your own risk!
Master Chief is on the run as of the latest episode of Halo Season 2, and it looks like new boss James Ackerson set him up. After being lied to about the Covenant's activity on Reach and the fate of the Cobalt team, it's looking more and more likely that the new boss of Spartan team doesn't really have humanity's best interests at heart. Is he a villain? Perhaps, but his actor, Joseph Morgan, doesn't see it that way.
I spoke to Morgan ahead of the premiere of Halo Season 2, having seen the first few episodes and his character's interactions with John and other Spartans. While the Master Chief is looking at things differently than ONI, James Ackerson confirmed he's deliberately withholding information from the Spartans as part of a larger plan. I asked the actor, knowing his past credits as villains in shows like The Vampire Diaries and Titans, if he felt Ackerson was also a villain, and learned the following:
No, I don't think so. I think he is set up in the writing and in the performance. So as an audience, we feel like he's the villain initially, but I don't believe so. I think that you know, I think he's the the hero of his own story. I think that John is, is getting in the way of what will save humanity. And that makes John the villain in his story, you know, he is ultimately for the greater good, right? He is doing what he does because he believes that this is what we need to do to survive. This is for the greater good.
Joseph Morgan makes a good point, and while Halo Season 2 dives deeper into the lives of Spartans, it also shows the desperate lengths some will go to in order to win a war. Ackerson clearly has a plan for how he intends to save humanity, but Master Chief's discovery about the Covenant advancing on Earth's major strongholds is in the way of it.
At the same time, there are already other examples fans can revisit with a Paramount+ subscription that suggest Ackerson isn't the most noble of men. For example, would a hero keep his predecessor Dr. Halsey hostage in a simulated program against her will? Joseph Morgan did a good job at explaining it away, as he continued with his argument against Ackerson being a villain:
And so, in that way, he's just making tough choices, and he's under a tremendous amount of pressure and he's literally deciding what and who will be sacrificed in order to get there. And that can paint him as a villain. But it's also sort of short-sighted, I think for the other characters to think of him as a villain because they don't understand how big a threat he's facing and how there's really no winning. It's just how do we lose as little as possible?
Those familiar with Halo's lore likely know where the story is headed and can trust Pablo Schreiber when he promised CinemaBlend that new showrunner Davie Wiener would improve on Season 1. The actor dropped some harsh truth bombs about the inaugural season, which received criticism for deviating from the source material in various ways.
Thus far, there haven't been additional instances of Master Chief taking off all his clothes, though the helmet is staying off for the time being. Thus far, it seems like those tuning in are okay with that and eager to see where the Spartan is headed off to next now that he's on the run.
The story has only deepened in the latest episode as we learn that Soren is now in custody and reunited with Dr. Halsey in her simulated prison. Obviously, there are still a lot of episodes to go in this season and a hope from others that we'll actually see a Halo ring before Season 2's end. Hopefully that happens, and we get some more insight on what's happening with James Ackerson and his motivations going forward. As convincing as Joseph Morgan was, I'm not sure I buy the narrative that he's not a villain in this story.
Halo streams new episodes on Paramount+ on Thursdays. Those who still have yet to give the new season a chance have plenty of time to catch up, and see why so many people are excited about all that's on the way in this sci-fi adaptation.
