Remember when there was supposed to be a Halo movie directed by Neill Blomkamp? Yeah, that never happened. What about that Steven Spielberg produced Halo TV series? Well, that may actually still be happening, but if you’re looking forward to seeing it, don’t get too excited quite yet.
At the gift which keeps on giving that is the Television Critics Association press tour, IGN spoke with Showtime President David Nevins and asked what the status of the project is at this point. When the project was first announces, Showtime is the expected, but still unofficial, home of the series if and when it makes it to air. Nevins had a quick, but brief response.
”It's still in development. Still in very active development.
Nevins goes on to caution that news of the project moving forward should not be expected anytime soon. While development is apparently “active” the lack of any further detail likely means there has been little progress in the drama project actually getting anywhere. Microsoft first announced the Steven Spielberg produced Halo series back in 2013 when the company made the initial announcement of the Xbox One console. At the time, Xbox stated the project would come together this year alongside Halo 5: Guardians, but the game is set to bow this fall with no actual show in sight. Since then, there has been little obvious movement on the series. The fact that Microsoft shut down the Entertainment division of Xbox about a year ago may not have helped the project.
Word is that the major hurdle here is working out exactly what the relationship will be between Xbox and Showtime. The purpose of Halo was to expand the Xbox One’s use as a console and Microsoft would want it to air on the console as well as the cable channel. It sounds like the plan would be for episodes to air on Showtime first, then go to the console. Since there’s never been a project that has been created with this sort of distribution method, things are moving slowly, as new ideas usually do. The fact that Showtime has never been officially announced as the home of the show backs up the idea that the channel hasn't even been able to come to terms on producing the show, much less be able to get to work on actually shooting a pilot.
This series is not Halo’s first foray outside of the game world. The franchise has made a couple different live action web series previously, one of which, Halo:Nightfall, was produced by Ridley Scott and eventually aired on Showtime.
Xbox has nodded at shows like Game of Thrones and Band of Brothers when the company has brought up a Halo series, so the channel clearly has high expectations for the project. For now, we’re glad Halo isn't dead, but it would be nice if it began to show any signs of life.
