Rather than focus on the series’ iconic and visually striking protagonist, the Halo TV series’ first teaser trailer instead centers around the series’ diverse supporting cast, relegating the recognizably-armored Master Chief’s screen time to only two brief shots.
Making its debut at the recent 2021 edition of The Game Awards, the Paramount Plus original series’ “First Look” trailer features a montage of scenes from the live-action video game adaptation, ranging from the Covenant capital city High Charity floating adrift in space to a fleet of UNSC Pelican airships mobilizing into action, set against a message from Dr. Catherine Halsey (Natascha McElhone) to Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber).
“You are special,” says Dr. Halsey. “In fact, I’m counting on it. We’re lost in the dark. But you give people hope. And I’ll always be with you. I see this as a new beginning.”
However, rather than seeing images of the Master Chief scattered amidst these displays of the series’ CGI-heavy production values, the trailer instead sees Dr. Halsey’s message punctuated with brief close-ups of the series’ secondary leads, including Yerin Ha’s Quan Ah:
Bokeem Woodbine’s Soren-066:
Natasha Culzac’s Riz-028:
And even, in a slight sucker punch to fans hoping to see their favorite Spartan in action, Casper Knopf as the Chief’s childhood self:
Master Chief proper is only seen twice throughout the entire teaser, being seen briefly inspecting a presumed-Forerunner artifact inside of a cave and in the ‘superhero’ landing shot seen in this article’s featured image, for a total of six seconds across the teaser’s minute-long runtime.
The Halo TV series is set to debut exclusively on Paramount Plus sometime in 2022.
What do you make of Halo’s first teaser focusing on it’s diverse set of deuteragonists over Master Chief? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!
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