Emmy-winning composer Sean Callery has hundreds of episodes’ worth of credits spread throughout shows like Jessica Jones, Inhumans, 24, and Bones, but even with all those productions in his resume, he hadn’t worked on a game-to-TV adaptation before Halo. That’s quite the one to start with, too, considering it’s a franchise that’s been around for 20 years and has a theme song and protagonist that are about as iconic as they can get. It may not be too surprising then that after working on Halo, Callery said he’s fallen in love with the series and considers it the biggest thing he’s ever worked on.
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Callery spoke to ComicBook.com ahead of Halo’s premiere on Paramount+ to talk about this undertaking, the pressures of working on a series this big, Master Chief’s relatability, and other video game projects he’s done or would have an open mind to working on. At the time, Callery said he was still finishing up the ninth episode in the series, so his work wasn’t done yet, but regardless of the episode being worked on, he said he viewed the music from the games as “sacred territory” and looked to respect it as such in the show.
You can check out our conversation with Callery in full below with our review of Halo found here.
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
ComicBook.com: Have you been able to see Halo yourself yet?
Oh yeah. I’ve heard the final mixes, and it’s funny … I just now in the last, I don’t know, month, saw the final special effects rendering for show one. Because the battle sequences are pretty intense, and they look beautiful and they sound beautiful. I’ve really fallen in love with the series. It was really the biggest thing I’ve ever worked on, and it was also just a beautiful story and part of a much larger universe of the Halo game franchise and so forth. So I was very excited about it, but also wanting to be very respectful of the property and certainly the music and everything that came before it.
What interested you in Halo at all? Did someone approach you? Did you approach them?
I was asked if I would be wanting to interview. I know they interviewed a lot of people, and I had that interview exactly, I think a year ago last week, believe it or not in March of 2021. What I loved about the story, I read the script and then I saw the rough cut of the first episode, which was now being shut down because of COVID. What I really loved about it was this Master Chief character, the Master Chief. This story is through him … He discovers when you watch the show, you’re going to see him sort of awakening to parts of himself that he didn’t know about. And it was sort of a discovery about him asking a question of himself, which is, “Who am I? What am I about? What am I doing?”
I just thought it was so interesting going through COVID, and us all being alone and working from home, we have all this stuff stripped away. And I think, who among us in the last two years hasn’t asked those kinds of questions? Who are we? What are we all about? What are the things that are important to us? That’s what got me on the story.
I thought there’s such a present-day human struggle that we’re facing, and even though this is set in a very futuristic world, this is about a guy discovering who he is. Along with other people, too. I just thought that was really a compelling part of the story, and that’s how I described my wanting to be involved. I think the action and the marvelous weaponry and things, those are incredible. But the heart of the story and the heart of the characters I think is what’s probably a big part of what’s sustained this as a very successful video game franchise for two decades.
I saw some people wondering: If you don’t know Halo, are you going to relate to a mostly silent character? Someone who doesn’t talk a whole lot. And I appreciate your perspective. Maybe that’ll draw in some new Halo fans.
I hope so. That was another big part of this, which was, well, how do you balance … I don’t know if you’re going to ask this question, but how do you balance the storytelling experience so that it’s rewarding to existing Halo fans, and also accessible to people who’ve never seen or played the game? It’s a really interesting and delicate discussion that we went over quite a bit. Because I worked with at least six different producers that were all active in the creation of the show, and we wanted to make sure that we honored the thematic music contributions from the prior composers who wrote really iconic themes.
At the same time, they wanted to make sure that it wasn’t an exact replication of the gaming experience, because this was a new thread and a new cannon and a separate storyline, much like the Star Wars spinoffs have gone. So we had to sort of delicately balance how to integrate the things that really were indigenous to the game with a new chapter/cannon. So it wasn’t completely divorced of it, but wasn’t completely along the same lane of it. It’s very challenging.
Is this the first video game adaptation that you’ve worked on?
Yes, it is. It is. Yes, the first video game adaptation for sure. Yeah, absolutely.
Are there any other video game adaptations that come to mind that you think you might want to work on after doing your first one?
Oh, I’m laughing right now because I’m still finishing up the ninth episode, and right now I would say ask me in a month. Because honestly, dude, I’ve never worked on a show so big. This is almost nine hours of content, so there’s … The answer is yeah. Gosh, I’m trying to think what video game would be really interesting. I’m not a huge, huge gamer, but when I do play games and enjoy them, they’re wonderful. God, I don’t know how to answer that question. There are some really interesting games about … What was that game, [Heavy] Rain, years ago? Did you ever see that game? About who was the murderer and stuff.
I wonder if that would make an interesting movie. I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t say that because I don’t know if it’s being made into a movie or someone else has designs on it. So let me just say my answer is I don’t know, but I’d love to. I worked on the James Bond video game, Everything or Nothing, just based on a movie.
You also did 24: The Game
I did 24: The Game. Yeah, I did. That was fun. That was a lot of fun.
So, why not do that any longer? Is there something about maybe working on video games scores that you just don’t like as much?
Oh, no. No. As a matter of fact, I think scoring for video games is probably the hardest, maybe one of the hardest things composers do. Because first of all, they have to write so much. There’s so much content that has to be written. Where I really got lucky is I was lucky to get involved with TV shows that took up a lot of time. Elementary, Homeland, Jessica Jones. That was another really interesting one.
I’m older, I’m in my fifties, and I have younger colleagues who can juggle six or seven projects at once, and I just don’t do that. So when I get hired for a show, I tend to commit myself fully. But no, if there was a game project that someone was interested in me, I would probably want to hop on it as soon as I could. Yeah, that’d be wonderful.
Back to Halo – Obviously you’re creating your own music for the show, but the music from the games themselves is pretty popular. I would say almost iconic. Everyone knows the theme song, the chanting. Is there any additional pressure working on something
I think there is some pressure. You’ve talked to composers, we serve at the pleasure of others. We’re work-for-hire. And the conversations that began in the very beginning were: We don’t want to have a complete redoing of the Halo gaming experience, because the flow of a gaming experience is its own energy. And in a linear storytelling show like the one you’re going to be watching, it flows differently just because it plays the same every single time. And they really wanted to have some new themes to accompany what was preexisting.
And I can’t stress this enough. I have such respect for the music of the games. I view it as almost a sacred territory, and whenever I handled the theme in any way, I would consult Microsoft and say, “I’d like to use it here and there,” and then the Halo had a certain kind of sound to it and so forth. And sometimes there was some very passionate debate about how much to use themes from the game in this series.
So those were decisions that were made that I certainly had my opinion about music, but in terms of how much of it and so forth, that was really weighed in by people above me. And the idea was to have this be something that would quote and certainly conjure the themes from the game, but you would also recognize this as its own lane, so to speak. Much like the Mandalorian is very different from Star Wars, but it’s still in the Star Wars universe.
On the topic of using music from the games, you mentioned battling how much of it to use. Did you have free reign to use as much as you wanted from the games, or were there any restrictions in place?
We never used any recordings of any of the original content, no. I don’t even know if that ever came up, honestly. I certainly listened to the music and I wanted to familiarize myself with the infamous, iconic music from the game. I wanted to understand also its relationship. In other words, when you heard it, like where in the game would you hear it? Because I didn’t play Halo very much, so it was very important for me to know if you’re going to hear the Gregorian chant, where in the storylines of gaming in Halo would you hear it?
This is what I didn’t want to do. You didn’t want to just throw a theme in there on some part of a story in the show that makes no sense to have the theme there, unless it has its root in some sort of storytelling purpose. So those were the kinds of conversations that we had. And we have new characters, and new expositions, and new worlds, and all these kinds of things. So those lent itself to being able to create newer sounds and textures for those worlds.
I’ve heard that Master Chief removes his helmet in this series. You know that’s a big deal for Master Chief to take off his helmet. So I guess, how do you prepare for such a big moment like that? Do you treat that differently than the rest of the work? Do
So just so you know, this is kind of interesting. I did not know that his helmet coming off was as big a deal as it was. It certainly was a big deal in the show in that it’s the first time we see the actor’s face, and it was a big reveal. So that I recognized as being the case, and I scored it as such. But then we were playing it back, and we went through a lot of different permutations of trying to get the tone of it just right, and they said, “You do realize that he never takes off his helmet in the game?” I said, “No.” I said, “Oh my God. I didn’t know that.”
So had I known that, I wondered if I might have been even more self-conscious about it. In other words, you don’t want to be so self-conscious that you get so delicate that you … You know how when your mother says, “Bring this over to the table. But it’s very fragile. Don’t break it,” and then you get some nervous you trip? I wanted to make sure that what I did was authentic, and I think the moment works really well. I hope the fans agree, and we’ll just see where the chips fall. But I didn’t know the significance of it fully. I recognized in the story when we filmed it, when I saw it I said, “This is a big moment,” because of the way they filmed it. But I didn’t realize how big it was. So, that’s pretty funny. I thought it was pretty funny.
Were you able to talk to Martin O’Donnell at all, who composed the music for the original Halo games? Did that ever come up?
I’ve never met him. I would love to meet him. We’ve never spoken, but my respect for him and his work is as high as it can be. I think very few people write iconic themes. Iconic themes are rare, and when you hear that, you know exactly what it is and where it’s from. So I have great respect for him as an artist, and I hope one day we can meet.
As a fellow composer, Martin O’Donnell has a lawsuit going on against Microsoft right now over the original music for the game. Do you have any comment on that, or any potential impact on the show?
I don’t have any comment, and I really don’t know anything more than you know. I think I’ve been kept very far from that. They’ve just kept me very focused on the show, and I don’t have any knowledge or any comment about it because I just don’t know.
My final question for you then is, I believe I saw that Halo has already been renewed for a second season. Will you be coming back for that?
I hope so. I don’t know. I’d like to think they would … I’ve had a very good relationship with the Microsoft people and the producers. They’re very good. I never take anything for granted. I hope they’ll appreciate … I hope we can continue the relationship. But in our business, as you know, you never know. But I would love to be back. I thought this was one of the more rewarding, intense experiences of my career, and I’d love to continue on the journey with them if they’ll have me.
