The Big Picture

The creative team behind Paramount+’s Halo series aimed to maintain the stylized action of the first season while delving into a more developed and grounded storyline for Season 2. There is a time jump of six months between Season 1 and Season 2, allowing for change and the resolution of Season 1 outcomes. The showrunners are excited for fans to watch multiple episodes of Season 2, with Episode 5 being a personal favorite. They also expressed their hopes for a Season 3 and the exploration of the expansive Halo lore.

Paramount+’s Halo series was massively popular for the streamer, despite some critiques from fans of the games, and it was almost immediately greenlit to continue. Ahead of Season 2 premiering this month, Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down with David Wiener, who took over as showrunner for the second season, and executive producer and video game developer, Kiki Wolfkill, to talk about the show’s tonal shift and what fans can expect when Episode 1 launches.

With Season 2, the creatives behind the series wanted to bring back the stylized action and everything viewers loved from the first season, but give it a more grounded, developed storyline. Taking place on what’s referred to as the Silver Timeline, Wiener and Wolfkill explain the time jump from the Season 1 finale to where they pick up this time around, and the purpose behind it.

Check out the video above or the transcript below to find out which episodes they’re most looking forward to viewers watching, their hopes for Season 3 and how they wrote the story for it, and just exactly how much of the video game lore can we expect this season.

Halo Aliens threaten human existence in an epic 26th-century showdown. Release Date March 24, 2022 Creator Steven Kane, Kyle Killen Main Genre Sci-Fi Seasons 2

Read Our ‘Halo’ Season 2 Review

‘Halo’ Season 2 Puts Viewers “Into the Place of the Soldier”

COLLIDER: I really want to start with that trailer is fantastic, and it really looks darker and different than the first season. What can you say about that?

DAVID WIENER: I think when setting out to make it aesthetically, we wanted to really take our audience and put them into the place of the soldier in the fight. So, that means introducing that element of the fog of war, so that our audience isn’t seeing things that our characters don’t see, not knowing things that our characters don’t know. It let us create this great kind of eeriness and tension where you’re never sure how big the enemy force is just out of our sight. I think we were really consistent with it, and I think it’s come out really beautifully, so I’m pretty pleased.

KIKI WOLFKILL: And that was part of bringing David on, right? Bringing David on for Season 2 was to really get to a more grounded place with how the show looked and felt in the story. And the stakes are higher in Season 2, and that’s something you need to be able to really feel, not just be told. That’s something we knew David would be able to execute on beautifully.

What Is the Time Jump From ‘Halo’ Season 1 to Season 2?
Image via Paramount Pictures

So Season 1 ends. How much is the time jump from Season 1 to Season 2?

WOLFKILL: You’ve said six months.

WIENER: Six months. There’s enough time for change, and also some time for some of the outcomes of Season 1 to crystallize and settle in.

So Season 2 is eight episodes, I believe. Which is the episode or episodes that you cannot wait for fans to see? You don’t have to spoil anything. I’m just wondering about the numbers.

WIENER: [Episodes] 1, 2, 3, 4…

WOLFKILL: [Laughs] [Episode] 5 is probably my favorite.

I like it when there’s different answers. You’re 1-4 and you’re 5.

WOLFKILL: I mean, that’s the thing, right? There’s the high action, which is actually spread pretty well throughout the season, and then there’s some of these personal stories. And so, I think for different people, depending on what they love the most, they’re gonna have a different favorite episode. So, you’ll understand when you see [Episode] 5, maybe, why it’s my favorite.

‘Halo’ Season 2 Sets Up to Explore More in Season 3
Image via Paramount+

Now that you’re in Season 2, when you’re making the first season, you really don’t know, “Am I gonna get a second season?” But when you get the second season, you know, “Wait, the studio is serious about this. They’re investing more resources.” So how much, when you guys were figuring out Season 2, were you looking at a bigger, long term plan in terms of setting up Season 3 or Season 4, if you’re lucky enough to get there?

WIENER: I think if you’re true to the story, you wanna leave yourself with doors to walk through at the end. We have a lot. It’s such a huge world. There’s so much of the legacy, of the lore, but also, every solution brings about its own problems at the end of the season, and I think that it’s a great springboard. I hope we get the chance to make more. That’s totally the intention. You do think about it. I would be lying if I said we didn’t.

WOLFKILL: You always have to assume the best, right? And you wanna be writing with that long term view in mind. So, definitely there’s story beyond Season 2. We would love to be able to explore.

Related ‘Halo’ Season 1 Ending Explained: What Happened to Makee and the Master Chief? To paraphrase Master Chief, things are just getting started for the Paramount+ series.

Spoiler-free — when Season 2 ends, what do you think fans are gonna say?

WIENER: I think it will be a combination of, “Finally,” and also I hope they’re just like, “Come on!” That’s how I feel when I watch the finale.

WOLFKILL: I think there will be a big exhale. It’s super intense. The last episode is very intense, so I think there really is gonna be just like a [exhales].

Video Game Fans Can Expect ‘Halo’ to Tread Into Core Mythology in Season 2
Image via Paramount+

I’m curious how Season 2 explores the mythology of Halo, because that’s something that a lot of people wanna know.

WIENER: I think that one of the great things when you become a part of a project like this is there’s this whole menu of what I loved as a fan that you can bring into the story. We’re in a different timeline, so sometimes we arrive at those places in a different route. But, yeah, I mean, I think that you try to be as true as you can, and also allow some freedom in it. It’s a different medium, it’s a different set of given circumstances that we come into the season with. But Kiki does a really good job of keeping us on point in terms of how we consider the lore. We’re steeped in it. If you come to it with humility and respect, and at the same time there’s things that we all love about the game and we want to go to some of those places this season.

WOLFKILL: There are some big events that players will be very familiar with that we really get to explore and are really core to the character journeys.

Halo Season 2 premieres on February 8 on Paramount+.

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