Halo Showrunner Steven Kane Talks Episode 6's Big Reveal
The long-awaited Halo TV series on Paramount+ is continuing to air new episodes every Thursday with its most recent episode, "Solace," making a huge reveal -- inarguably the biggest of the series so far. Following the sixth episode's premiere on the streaming service, ComicBook.com had the opportunity to speak with Halo showrunner and writer Steven Kane about how the reveal came about, and why it took six episodes to happen.
Warning: beyond this point, there be spoilers for Halo's sixth episode, "Solace," as well as spoilers for the show in general thus far.
In "Solace," Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and Makee (Charlie Murphy) are transported to some sort of vision of the ring installation fans will recognize as the Halo. It's the beginning of the culmination of the promise of the name of the franchise, and a huge reveal that took six episodes to happen. According to our interview with Kane, however, the decision to have the reveal so far into the first season came about organically.
ComicBook.com: Speaking to Halo episode six, specifically, this episode had what is arguably the biggest reveal of the series so far, the ring installation itself that the franchise takes its name from, Halo. Can you walk me through the decision when you were going to reveal the Halo itself, something so fundamental to the games?
Steven Kane: It kind of happened organically. We were trying to figure out a way to build a bond between John and Makee that didn't seem rushed or forced. They start off, she thinks he's the demon, she's there to kill him. He doesn't know about her. Then, when he meets her, he doesn't trust her. I wanted to sort of figure out a way to get them to relate, because they are very much the same. They're in many ways orphaned, adopted by people or creatures who use them as we'll figure out, as we'll learn more. We sort of established that connection between them when he touches the artifact on Eridanus, and she's in Madrigal and she feels it, so that was happening.
I thought we should blow their minds and blow our minds, and so that necessity to find a way to get them to be convinced that, "Wait a minute, we need to talk about this. This is something that we have in common that's huge." Now I know in canon, all humans are to a certain degree Reclaimers, but even within that, there are certain people who are more Reclaimer than other, I guess. It occurred to me, I said, "What if, instead of just a connection that they feel physically, what if they both teleport mentally to this shared place and get a symbol of what this artifact is calling them towards, and have them meet there, and blow their minds and blow our minds at the same time?"
It all got very exciting and came to me in the flash of, "That's how we should do it," because there was this necessity as you see the season go on for certain things to happen. I was trying to solve some plot issues and character issues, and it all came together at once, and I thought, "This is the time. They've been talking about it, hinting about it. What is this artifact?" Halsey says in this episode, "You don't know what you're getting into. There are things…" and he says, "Tell me. What things? What do you know?", and even she can't articulate it because she doesn't know. She just knows that, as she said in episode four, there is some sort of intelligence behind these things that she wants to get to know, she wants to meet. As a super-intelligent human, she wants to meet the "superest" intelligence of the galaxy.
We've been building towards this, everyone's talking about it and how dangerous it is for him to pursue this, but also how powerful it is. It really brought a lot of things together at once. I thought it was a great little tease for what Halo looks like, and what it can be, and it becomes this driving force for John and Makee going forward, of discovering what this Halo means and what it means to them.
As noted above, the sixth episode of the Halo television series, "Solace," is now available to stream on Paramount+ alongside the rest of the series so far. New episodes, in general, release on Thursdays. The series stars Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, Natascha McElhone as Dr. Catherine Halsey, Jen Taylor as the voice of Cortana, Yerin Ha as Kwan Ha, and more. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the Halo TV show right here. And you can catch Halo directly on Paramount+ right here.
What do you think about what Kane has to say about revealing the ring in the latest episode? Are you looking forward to what happens next? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming or television!