Halo TV show star says Master Chief's romantic relationship was a "huge mistake"

eurogamer.net:

Pablo Schreiber, the face (quite literally) behind Master Chief's helmet in Paramount's Halo adaptation, thinks it was a «huge mistake» to introduce a romantic relationship for the Spartan warrior. In fact, he pushed back against it.

As a reminder, in the first season of Halo, Schreiber's John-117 has sex with human-turned-Covenant agent Makee, as Cortana watches on. They were Cortana in the act, if you will.

While the intercorse itself wasn't actually shown, with the two lovers merely seen touching scars and so on before waking up in bed together, it is very heavily implied. Many felt this was a mistake for the series, along with Master Chief showing both his face and his naked derriere.

And, as it turns out, Schrieber agrees with viewers on that particular Halo story beat. «The decision to make the connection between Makee and John a romantic connection was a huge mistake,» Schreiber told SFX magazine (via GamesRadar).

He tried to make his thoughts heard, saying he «argued against it and fought against it». But as is evident by the first season, the actor «wasn't listened to», with Schriber stating: «But I am who I am. I don't write the scripts. I only give my opinion.»

As for the fact that we do see Master Chief's face numerous times throughout the series, Schreiber is ok with all that. «It was very important early on that the helmet comes off, you see the face, and you disassociate your version of who you believe the Chief was,» Shrieber said on the first series' release.

«Rather than being co-creator of the experience as you go along and believing that you're Chief, we're now inviting you to sit back on the couch and watch Chief start to discover elements of himself.»

Production for the second season of Halo (which I just accidentally typed as sexond, Freudian slip perhaps) began back in September 2022 in Iceland. The series is due to make its debut on 8th February, on Paramount Plus.