Halo Season 2 Takes Aim at Massive, Ambitious New Adventure for Master Chief

Halo Season 2 is looking to shake things up from the first batch of episodes in ambitious, uncharted new directions. With David Weiner being the new showrunner in place, the cast and crew of Halo were not shy about how excited they are for the new episodes under his direction. From the props department to the story arc, the message delivered on the Budapest set of Halo Season 2 was a bold emphasis on the confident and exciting new swings the series is taking. 

“Come on back and see the differences between season one, season two and see if you like it,” Master Chief actor Pablo Schreiber said at a table full of journalists, just a few miles from a massive underground set which is too spoiler-y to discuss just yet. “A bit of time has passed and not all of the things that were set in stone at the end of Season 1 are set in stone at the top of Season 2. There has been some change and time has passed.”

In the time which has passed, there have story events which will kick off the season such as one of the key planets having been destroyed. However, there have also been massive upgrades to the props which the department was thrilled to share. Below, ComicBook.com rounds up some of the most exciting and major takeaways from spending a couple of days on the massive set of Halo‘s second season. 

New Showrunner Makes A New Show

Schreiber is unforgivingly excited to see Weiner take the reigns on Halo. It shouldn’t be a surprise, given the actor’s frustrations with some elements on Season 1. His confidence in what is to come from the next batch of episodes’ writing is contagious, saying the new run, “feels vastly more authentic,” than Season 1. 

“I think obviously the biggest change is we have a new show runner and that David Wiener is our showrunner for Season 2, and that’s the biggest change because essentially we’re paid to live in worlds that other people create, and so this year we’re living in David Wiener’s world and he’s an incredibly intelligent guy with a really well thought out vision and it’s a story that I am happy to live in and a world that I’m happy to live in and really excited to be telling his story of this version.”

Shreiber also notes the “growing pains” which naturally came from launching such a massive show a couple of years ago “So, he came in with all his preconceived notions of what it would be like to work on a show this big, but then his mind was blown by how big it was, and so he’s going through his own learning process while we already went through one; the first season. So we’re meeting somewhere in the middle. It is a massive show that you have to take your lessons as they come.”

Schreiber believes viewers can start the show with Season 2 and enjoy it as a whole, not feeling like they’re missing too much to understand the entire experience. However, he still encourages viewers to watch Season 1 as it is available on Paramount+, where Season 2 will be streaming. 

One Shot, One Episode

Perhaps one of the most ambitious efforts coming from Season 2 of Halo and Weiner’s vision is an entire episode without a cut. Of course, there will be cuts, but the audience will be given a long-running sequence where scenes are stitched together as though the camera were perpetually moving through the action. Halo executive producer and mastermind Kiki Wolfkill opened up about the massive effort coming in Episode 4 of Season 2. 

“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. “We wanted it to feel more visceral. We wanted it 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 one, 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. And the wonder, and it’s a language we use in a few places throughout the season, is something that just really gives you that very, very singular and very intense perspective.”

 Almost unanimously, the cast members chose Episode 4 when asked which episode of Season 2 they are most excited for. 

The Helmet Comes Off, Deal With It

A controversial topic since Halo launched its first trailer ahead of its first season is going to continue but Schreiber isn’t very interested in continuing the conversation. His Master Chief character will continue to remove his helmet and have many scenes outside of the Spartan armor throughout Season 2, an element of the show the actor believes is necessary to show the duality of John and his Master Chief identity. 

“We started the first episode by taking the helmet off. He takes the helmet off throughout the season because that’s the story. We’re telling a story about the dynamic between the super soldier Master Chief who’s been stuck in this suit of armor for his entire life and his burgeoning humanity and his experience with humanity,” Schreiber explained. “That’s John. And so to tell that story, you have to have both sides. You have to access to the actor space. You have to create a dual experience for the character. That’s our show.”

That said, Schreiber is excited to note that the costume department upped their game for Season 2. “Aesthetically, I think they were definitely improved,” Schrieber said. “The look is much improved. Functionally.. I just don’t know how much they can improve those hunks of plastic. They look great, they work great. So, that’s all we’re focused on.” The costumes were used for the majority of sequences involving the Spartan characters, though their 55-pound weight did mean that the characters will occasionally be computerized renditions as some action sequences simply couldn’t be executed in the beefy gear. 

Props Ripped From The Games

Perhaps the most excited group to interview on set was the props department. With art and designs and loads of pieces used in previous episodes scattered around their building, their locked away armory was one of the coolest rooms to step inside. Season 2 will see the prop weapons get a major overhaul. They’re bigger, they’re louder, they’re more functional, and they’re more authentic. 

Not only does the USNC’s carbine now how a counter which drops down each time the trigger is pulled to emulate the feature from the Halo games but the pistols and other weapons have built in cO2 features to provide an authentic kickback for when a performer pulls the trigger. Now, the weapons don’t fire anything, not even blank rounds. All of those effects will be added digitally later for safety. However, seeing a side-by-side comparison of the carbine from Season 1 with the same weapon in its Season 2 form seems to summarize the additional effort being poured into the series going forward.

New Characters, Forerunners, and… The Flood?

While much of the Season 2 story was kept under wraps and the story points of Episode 5 & 6 which were being filmed during the set visit are too spoiler-y to reveal, there were enough pieces of information to decipher some elements of the plot. The emphasis for the Spartan characters seems to be on exploring their humanity, with some of them having gained freedom of choice by the end of the first season.

“Season 1 was Kai very much discovering being emotional for the first time and what emotions, how she was feeling, what those emotions are,” Kai actor Kate Kennedy explained. “Season 2’s moved on in a way that she’s able to control them a little bit better and she’s trying to discover what lies beneath those emotions. So it’s a lot of discovery of a moral compass. She’s trying to figure out what is right and who is right and who to trust. I think in this series, I think all the Spartans go through a real sea change this season.”

Beyond Kai and John, the UNSC is going to be a major factor, as well. New cast members have joined the fold, such as Joseph Morgan’s James Ackerson. According to Morgan, Ackerson is “a guy who spent years working his way up the UNSC, and he’s kind of running the ONI now, the Office of Naval Intelligence.” His arrival “shakes things up” in the organization, with a belief that Spartans, “serve a purpose,” and an appearance of being a bit of an adversary to Schreiber’s John. Morgan expects audiences to hate his character, then get won over to love him, before learning to hate him in brand new ways. With Forerunners coming into the mix, it’s a safe bet that Morgan’s Ackerson is using resources, old and new, at the UNSC to work towards his goals by any means necessary.

It also appears the Flood might be playing a part in Season 2 of Halo if our detective skills (simply looking at pieces of gnarly-looking concept art) are in tact. However, it seems as though such an enemy will be a factor late in the season and largely explored in Season 3. Forerunners and the Flood have a deep-running history in the Halo games series, so it seems Weiner’s aforementioned vision for Halo does indeed have a long-running roadmap. 

Halo Season 2 is set to premiere on Paramount+ on February 8. Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for more coverage from our time on the show’s set!