Halo Composer on the Show’s Big Helmet Scene: “I Think the Moment Works Really Well”

Halo is out now on Paramount+, and with the release of the debut episode in the series, we’ve now gotten our first look at Master Chief without his helmet on. Of course, you’ll already have had an idea of what that might look like if you’d been paying attention to the news around the show and knew that actor Pablo Schreiber would be playing Master Chief, but it was still a critical moment in the Halo franchise regardless. ComicBook.com to the TV series’ composer Sean Callery about this moment to learn more about how he handled such a critical reveal, and he said he thinks the finished product “works really well.”

But before Callery gave his thoughts on the scene, he revealed another interesting detail: The composer didn’t realize that Master Chief removing his helmet was such a big deal. It was evident from the way the scene was shot, sure, but it wasn’t until Callery had already worked on the scene that he was informed of its significance.

“I did not know that his helmet coming off was as big a deal as it was,” Callery told ComicBook.com when asked how he approached this scene. “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.’”

Callery continued to suggest that maybe it was better he didn’t realize it was such a critical franchise moment or else he could’ve become “even more self-conscious about it.”

“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 so nervous you trip?” he said as an analogy. “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.”

ComicBook.com spoke to Schreiber recently, too, about finally putting a face to Master Chief with Halo’s executive producer Kiki Wolfkill also speaking out on this scene.