Master Chief Would Not Have Been the Main Character in the Halo Movie
It’s been a while now since a Halo feature film was announced, built up, and then eventually scrapped, but that hasn’t stopped people from speculating about how good (or bad) it could have been. Frankly, I don’t think people will ever stop talking about it until the day it does finally become a reality. But in the meantime, here’s an interesting little tidbit for Halo fans to chew on: in a previously unpublished interview with Newsweek, Bungie writing director Joseph Staten revealed that the Halo movie might not have been quite as focused on the Master Chief as you might think.
“…Over time I think everybody around the table agreed that the Master Chief is best left as the most important supporting cast member. Where the Master Chief doesn’t have a face, but he has a whole body to emote with, whether it’s his spine, or his shoulders. or the tilt of his head, or the way he slumps or reloads his weapon… He becomes a really wonderful source of mystery, a sort of anonymous problem solver. So we definitely worked on that. In the final version of the script the Master Chief was certainly absolutely critical to the film, but there were other characters around him which carried most of it, that did most of the emotional heavy lifting. The Master Chief was there in support of their story.”
Hmm. Well on the surface, that quote seems like something that would have a lot of Halo fans squirming in their seats, and feeling glad that the movie was cancelled in the first place. However, for me, this is proof that they were heading in the right direction. They knew that Master Chief couldn’t carry the movie as a main character without actually revealing his face, but they also knew that if they revealed his identity it would kind of go against what makes him so compelling. So they came up with this solution to sort of have him off to the side as a mythical hero, rather than be the main focus of the story. I think it could have worked. Anyone with me on this one?
Comments (6)
I agree. I was thinking about how they would have a main character in a suit that defines the character for the whole film. In almost every movie like that, the character ends up exposing most of his face by the end of the film, like in the first Spider-Man or Robocop. As a Halo fan, I don’t think I’d like a helmetless Master Chief running around with Vin Diesel’s face.
Posted by Paul on January 17th, 2008Ya seeing Darth Vaders face ruined him for me. He was such a bad ass before that.
Posted by Mike on January 17th, 2008I know that my opinion doesn’t really matter since I have no real interest in Halo, any of it’s sequels, or the prospective movie aside from the purely action standpoint, but I could care less who the main character of this film is (or “would be” as it were). If it were a property that I had an interest in I’m sure I would have strong feelings one way or the other, but while I would like to see a Halo movie, I’m only really interested in the alien battles and futuristic technology.
Posted by Rian on January 17th, 2008I think it would be possible to make a great Halo movie based on what I’ve heard about the novelizations but generally I’m glad it’s not being made. They obviously couldn’t handle it. Plus, the Halo production design is somewhat bland (although I do enjoy playing the games and the spartan armor looks cool).
Posted by Ryan on May 21st, 2008what ever they could pull an action movie without showing his face, people gammers or not it would be awsome, let criticts talk if fans are happy it was a sucsess.
Posted by Greg on March 14th, 2009Leave a Reply