After years of movies based on video games regularly failing to live up to expectations, something of a golden age has begun in the world of television. Both HBO’s The Last of Us and Prime Video’s Fallout have received wide praise from both gamers and non-gamers alike. And yet, that hasn’t been the case with every new video game series. The fact that Paramount+’s Halo series has been canceled after two seasons has been met with a great deal of relief among video game fans.
Halo (which can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription) was at least something a bit different when it came to an adaptation. While it purported to be an adaptation of the video game series, with the primary game protagonist of Master Chief, aka John-117, also the main character of the series, the show took a lot of liberties with the source material that fans didn’t love. This has resulted in many responding to the news of cancellation from Variety with a significant lack of disappointment. Comments include…
- Now how about a good set of movies following the story of the games.
- As a massive Halo fan I’m not at all disappointed by this news.
- Been a Halo fan for years now and I can say that this is a great news
- YES! Excellent news! I'm happy to know that as a Halo fan this garbage series was cancelled.
Halo was among the most popular game franchises fans waited years to see in live action. There were many attempts to make a Halo movie that never got very far. The news that Halo would get a streaming series was largely met with happiness until people saw it.
If the idea of changing the Halo story was designed to bring in a wider audience, it didn’t appear to work. Critics' response to Halo was that the show felt exceedingly generic for science fiction. The show added a romantic subplot that resulted in a naked Master Chief that many people viewing the show found ridiculous.
Not every response to the cancellation is positive. Some people did like the show and are bummed it’s now gone. Some who are big fans of the game franchise felt that the fact that the series wasn’t simply a direct retelling of the game’s plot was a good thing, but the fact that many are rejoicing at this news shows that a lot of people who feel very strongly about Halo as a franchise had issues with the series.
With the end of the series, the future of Halo as a franchise is in question. While future video games have been teased, nothing has been officially announced since Halo: Infinite was released in 2021. With the series ending it will be some time before anybody tries to take another stab and adapt the games in live-action. But if and when they do, we can expect the series’ weak response from fans to be considered. The creators of any of the other upcoming video game movies and series will probably remember what has happened here as well.
