Halo Season 2 Crew Talks Single Shot Episode and Why It's Important

The season's fourth episode will have "wall-to-wall action" and major story moments.

By Brandon Davis

Halo Season 2 is only a couple of weeks away. ComicBook.com learned quite a bit about the upcoming installments while visiting the show's Budapest set, hearing firsthand how they are aiming to blow fans of the Paramount+ series away. Among the many changes coming in the show's second season, Halo has a new showrunner in the form of David Weiner. With the new vision of Weiner's, Halo is getting more ambitious with its scope and ideas. As a result, one episode of Halo Season 2 is going to feature a continuous camera shot which is stitched together for an action-heavy bout giving an appearance where the camera never cuts. 

Kiki Wolfkill is an executive producer on the Halo TV Series, with her experience within the franchise going back to the video games where she also served as an executive producer. "One of the things that we really wanted to deliver on season two was a much more sort of grounded subjective perspective for the audience," Wolfkill explained, when asked about making an episode of the series an extended, single-shot installment. "We wanted it to feel more visceral. We wanted the story and the events to feel very immediate for the viewer. And so with episode four, we had a director named Craig Zisk. There's obviously big events that happen in episode four. It's very action focused. And while we had a lot of action in Season 1, I think the approach to this was very different. We almost look at it like a war film in terms of how we want it to feel and how we want it to sound. And the camera work was part of that and having it really feel like you're in a moment and that moment just keeps building an intensity."

Wolfkill promises the episode will be, "super intense by design," as it fits organically into the show's story and tells a story from multiple perspectives. 

In other words; no, it will not be a first-person experience like the Halo games but an all-encompassing episode with multiple characters going to battle. Still, Otto Bathurst, an executive producer on the series and director for episodes five and six, promises the episode Wolfkill is describing will feature, "wall-to-wall action," and believes it will satisfy gamers who watch the show.  "Episode four is a big, big battle sequence and we've really tried to replicate the gaming experience," Bathurst said. "So, there's a lot of very impressive ones that thread. It's really, really beautifully constructed."

"What was what we learned from the season one, certainly from the fans' perspective, it was the action sequences that they really, really went for and really loved," the director explained. "And I think these action sequences have taken that and gone, as I say, they're much more down and dirty and much more gritty and much more in it. And you really feel like you're in the battle and you're in the war. And they're a lot more like war movies." While Bathurst did not direct Episode 4, he picks up right where the action leaves off and promised the show delivers more of it in his Episode 5.

Several of the cast members from Halo's second season chose Halo to be the episode they are most looking forward to, including Bokime Woodbine and Christina Taylor. "I think four is kind of the action peak of the first half of the series, and it has a plot point that is very, very beloved by Halo fans and people who love the game," Master Chief actor Pablo Schreiber said. "It covers some territory that I think people will be very interested in seeing, and I personally can't wait to see myself as well."

Are you excited to see new episodes of Halo? Share your thoughts in the comment section! 

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