Adding his voice to the cacophony of fans who have similarly found themselves bewildered by the questionable-at-best direction of Paramount Plus’ live-action Halo series’, franchise co-creator and Master Chief designer Marcus Lehto has revealed that he has been left “confused by many of the choices” made by the live-action adaptation of his original work.
Lehto, who served as Bungie’s Creative Art Director beginning with Halo: Combat Evolved – for which he conceived Master Chief’s iconic design – before later directing the studio’s final game in the series, Halo: Reach, first touched upon his thoughts on the series on May 14th.
Asked by a fan for his feelings “about Master Chief finishing (definitely not the fight) in the Halo TV series?” – referring to the now infamous sex scene presented in the show’s eighth episode – Lehto revealed that he was “still getting through the series,” but noted that he had “lots of mixed emotions and opinions!”
Two days later, after being tagged into a Twitter conversation between two users over the series’ quality – one pleased that the series was “reaching a new audience to the brand, even if it’s not the Halo we knew,” the other finding it “takes the brand & strays it away from the heart of the series/game – Lehto would opine, “Yeah, I’m not sure where the inspiration for the show comes from now. Not the Halo I made.”
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“For clarity, I never said I didn’t like it,” he would add in a follow up tweet. “It’s just so different than the Halo I helped make – like it’s a different universe.”
As others joined the conversation and shared their opinions on the series’ production, Lehto would offer a small bit of praise to the show, echoing the sentiments of another user and asserting, “I actually like some of the battle scenes.”
“Cool action and some great VFX,” he said of what may be the series’ only positive point. “In particular, the plasma hit effects in ep1 are spot on.”
As his tweets began to circulate across social media, it was soon noticed by fellow Twitter user @mexican_sunbro, who retweeted Lehto and observed, “Damn, when one of the original creators behind Halo hates the TV show adaptation it’s time to cancel it.”
“I didn’t say I hate the show,” responded Lehto. “Some parts are interesting. Just confused by many of the choices that were made which feel pretty far outside the core fiction I helped create.”
As of writing, Lehto has not offered any further thoughts on Paramount Plus’ widely panned endeavor.
However, given that his above comments were made the day before the May 18th premiere of Halo’s first season finale, one can only imagine how he may feel about the episode’s bait-and-switch twist.
What do you make of Lehto’s opinion on the Halo TV series? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!
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