Hollywood's been trying to make use of the Halo brand for a long time. Back in the mid-noughties (around the period of 2007's Halo 3) it was intended as a feature vehicle for the then untested Neil Blomkamp. That never came to fruition, with the South African director moving onto a range of other sci-fi features, but in 2013 Microsoft announced a Steven Spielberg produced TV series. Now, after two quiet years, we're hearing that the gears might still be silently turning on that project. IGN broached Halo with Showtime President David Nevins, who had this to say:
"It's still in development. Very active development."
Nevins cautions that the show won't be ready soon, but he seems to indicate it's still a part of Showtime's plans. Initially the series was set to debut alongside this autumn's Halo 5, but obviously that's no longer the case. Apparently one of the key problems has been ironing out a distribution method, with Microsoft wanting the show to air on Showtime, then be immediately available through its Xbox One network. A deal of this nature is pretty alien, so those logistics would need to be hammered out before cameras could begin to roll.The Halo universe now entails five games and a bunch of live action shorts, so there's plenty to draw upon. In the past (particularly with Blomkamp's iteration) budget has been a recurrent concern, so it's nice to hear no overt chatter of that ilk here. We're probably in a better position to envision the videogame's expansive world now than we were a decade ago, so let's hope this TV series finds solid footing in the next few months. When's Halo 6 due?