Halo Season 3: Is The TV Series Getting Renewed?
Is Halo Season 3 happening? Here's what we know after looking back at the Season 2 ratings and reactions.
Halo Season 2 is now streaming on Paramount+, and the overwhelming reaction from those who watched it is that this show has improved by leaps and bounds over what we got in Season 1.
With Halo Season 2 offering up some big milestone moments of TV action and drama – and the finale bringing us to the desired place that fans have been waiting for (the titular Halo ring), there's only one question left that needs to be answered:
Will Halo Get A Season 3 Renewal?
Halo Season 2 started off with strong viewership for its premiere episodes, coming in third on the Nielsen charts for original series, with 354 million minutes being watched in the first four days. There was a far gap between Halo Season 2 and the top 2 series on the chart: Netflix's Griselda (735M mins) and Amazon's Mr. and Mrs. Smith (765M mins); however, Halo did lead a pack which included (at the time) Reacher Season 2 (314M mins), The Crown (238M mins), and Percy Jackson and the Olympians (227M mins).
Throughout the run of Season 2 (eight episodes total), Halo Season 2 generated and maintained serious buzz on social media – even when that buzz was a debate between those loving the new creative direction of the series, and those who still didn't feel the TV show lived up to the legacy of the games. Critics were pretty kind to the show: Halo Season 2 holds an 89% "Fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to the 70% average held by Season 1.
With all that on the table, it's hard to get a solid read on where things stand with Halo. Paramount+ is a limited distribution platform, so even if subscribers overwhelmingly tuned into Halo, it doesn't mean that the show, on the whole, has generated enough views and engagement to justify the price of premium blockbuster TV content.
That said, Halo Season 2's Finale dropped some big new twists on viewers, and set up a potential Season 3 to be the most exciting one yet. Season 3 would be the most direct adaptation of the original Halo: Combat Evolved video games – which is exactly what most fans (and naysayers) have been waiting to see. Canceling Halo now seems like it would be squandering the most potential and goodwill the series has ever had.
What Would Halo Season 3 Be About?
(SPOILERS) Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) made to the Halo ring and its installation, where viewers got their first taste to the ancient technology and AI connected to it. Elsewhere, the UNSC science division (led by Dr. Catherine Halsey and her daughter Miranda Keyes) inadvertently released another ancient relic: the viral parasitic species known as The Flood. The UNSC base on Planet Onyx was quickly overrun with Flood infection, with Halsey and Admiral Margaret Parangosky both being infected.
As stated, Halo Season 3 would finally bring the series into the events of the original Halo video game – albeit with a few twists.
First, the Halo TV series has already unleashed The Flood, before Master Chief discovers the infectious race on Halo, like in the games. There's also Makee (played by actress Charlie Murphy), the Covenant's human "chosen one" and Master Chief's rival, who also entered the Halo instillation and is presumably in a race against Chief to discover the facility's secrets. Finally, Chief's rival from the games, the Covenant Arbiter, was killed in the Season 2 finale, thereby rewriting his pivotal role in the Halo game trilogy.
That all said, the basic building blocks of the original Halo game storyline are all there – plus some additional elements created for the show. With Season 3 having practically written itself already, it would be an extra big shame if Paramount were to cancel Halo now.
If Halo Season 3 happens, this would presumably be the lineup of returning characters we'd (definitely) see:
- Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, Spartan John-117
- Natascha McElhone as Dr Halsey
- Jen Taylor / Christina Bennington as Cortana
- Charlie Murphy as Makee
- Olive Gray as Dr Miranda Keyes
- Bokeem Woodbine as Soren-066
- Yerin Ha as Kwan Ha
- Joseph Morgan as James Ackerman
- Cristina Rodlo as Talia Perez
How to Watch Halo Season 2
Right now Halo Season 2 is only streaming on Paramount+. It remains to be seen if other streaming platforms (like Netflix) will carry the series.
