Paramount Plus’ Halo will quench years of fan curiosity as Master Chief reveals his face in the upcoming new series.
Fans may have divided opinion about this announcement.
This is because Master Chief has never taken his helmet off in any Halo game.
There is undeniable standing curiosity among the fans as to how the character looks like.
But there is also the understanding that it’s his personality, his identity.
Master Chief is Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 in the Halo franchise.
Also called the Spartan, Master Chief is a playable character in the military science fiction first-person shooter video games.
He appears from Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 to 4, then Halo 5: Guardians and finally, Halo Infinite.
Master Chief also appeared in graphic novels including Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, Halo: First Strike and Halo: Uprising
The character has always had his helmet on. This provides ample room for players to identify with him during gameplay.
Videogame players can easily imagine themselves inside Master Chief’s armor.
As a first person shooter game, Master Chief has been very successful in creating a unique bond with the players.
This is why long-standing enthusiasts of the game who are also looking forward to the Paramount+ project may not be too ecstatic about the news.
Expect To See Master Chief’s Face In New Halo Series
Image: Bungie
Creators of the Paramount+ project acknowledge the two types of reaction to this announcement.
Executive producer and 343’s Studio Head of Transmedia, Kiki Wolfkill reveals:
I think we set out to tell a character story and a personal story. And once we really got into what that story was, it became clear that you really needed to see the person in the armour and under the helmet. For some people, it’s been a moment 20 years in the making, and for other people it is something that feels very hard to imagine. We absolutely respect both sides of that fence, those who really want to see Chief’s face and those who really don’t. But for the nature of this story, it felt really important to connect with the Master Chief in a different way, and that meant showing the face.
In past Halo games, Master Chief has at a few times almost showed his face.
But never entirely.
In Halo: Combat Evolved, the camera panned away just before players thought they could get a good look at Master Chief’s face when he took off his helmet.
Players successfully beating the Legendary difficulty of Halo 4 got to see the Spartan’s eyes.
The official teaser poster shows Master Chief not wearing his helmet but still did not show his face.
Other than those, there is no other record of Master Chief’s helmet-bare head.
Image: Paramount
All of those instance of near-face-revealing scenes are in-game or just a teaser.
The Paramount+ project is highly different in a way that it focuses not only on Master Chief’s mission but also him as a person.
If we are to look at similar characters, we can take a page off Din Djarin, Boba Fett and Judge Dredd.
These characters are also known for keeping their helmets on.
Fett and Dredd have had their run with fans being disappointed about removing their helmet.
Djarin, however, had better fare on his helmet removal because the situations in the story called for it.
It is quite notable that the story surrounding the reason why the helmet is removed will be important for longtime fans to accept this revelation.
Maybe that is what Paramount+ has up its sleeve.
Will fans give Master Chief removing his helmet a chance?
