The first season of Paramount+’s adaptation of the beloved Halo franchise left a bad taste in many viewers’ mouths, and the list of reasons as to why is not a short one. From the mishandling of the Master Chief to the out-of-place soap opera elements, and the convoluted plot that left viewers with more questions than it did satisfying answers, the series ultimately failed to captivate an audience that had been waiting so long to see their favorite universe come to life in a big-budget television format. Perhaps the most important reason for this failure, however, was the simple lack of so many characters who helped gamers fall in love with the franchise in the first place so many years ago.
Now, this is not to say the Halo television series is completely devoid of familiar faces, because it’s not. Jacob and Miranda Keyes, two iconic characters from the original Halo trilogy, have a big presence in the show, as does Dr. Catherine Halsey. But when it comes down to it, there are so many other great Halo characters whose exclusion from the show really only leaves viewers scratching their heads and wondering why such creative decisions were made. If the second season of Halo is to attempt to win back any of the goodwill it lost after the ten premiere episodes, it will have to make a conscious effort to include more of the names and faces that are synonymous with the franchise to the majority of fans. Here are a few characters Halo’s second season ought to bring into the spotlight.
Blue Team
Anyone who is familiar with the lore of the Halo franchise knows that while Master Chief may be a one-man army in most of his game appearances, he is not always this way in the expanded lore. For many of his earlier years, Master Chief ran missions with fellow Spartans Kelly, Fred, and Linda. Collectively, they were known as Blue Team, and they are arguably the closest things to proper brothers and sisters that the Chief ever had.
Due to this close bond and connection between the characters, fans were quite surprised when finding out the show would not include Blue Team, choosing instead to focus on the brand-new Silver Team, which consisted of the Master Chief and three other Spartans nobody had really ever heard of up until that point. While this left potential for the show to give fans something they hadn’t seen before, in execution it ultimately felt pointless. The ten episodes that were released did not give a satisfying justification for this replacement, as Silver Team only really added up to a hollow shadow of what fans loved about Blue Team. If Season Two wants to remedy this issue, simply sending Silver Team off in favor of bringing in the beloved Kelly, Fred, and Linda would be a wise decision.
Sergeant Johnson
One of the first characters players met in 2001 after booting up Halo: Combat Evolved was Sergeant Avery Johnson, who immediately won the audience over with his entertaining quotes and charismatic personality. While Johnson did not have a pivotal role in the first game, he went on to be more involved in the story of Halo 2 and Halo 3, solidifying his importance to the story of Halo.
When it comes down to it, removing the charm of Sergeant Johnson from Halo is equivalent in many ways to removing R. Lee Ermey’s Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket—it’s just not a good decision. A character like Johnson has more than earned his place in a live-action Halo show, and could absolutely find a time and place to shine. Johnson is known to team up with the aforementioned Miranda Keyes here and there in the games, and there is no doubt that fans would be itching to see this duo alongside each other in live action. Introducing him as a character in season two would undoubtedly be a wise choice.
The Arbiter
One of the most controversial decisions made in the story of Halo 2 was to divide the gameplay time between Master Chief and The Arbiter, a high-ranking Covenant Elite who acted in opposition to the Chief for the majority of the game. However, fans soon learned to love The Arbiter through his very personal and well-written story arc in the series’ second installment. Said story arc added many important and interesting layers to the world-building and mechanics of the original Halo trilogy, injecting much-needed nuance and depth into the franchise.
While the Halo series' first season did have somewhat of a Covenant perspective subplot, The Arbiter was nowhere to be found. While the justification for this may be that, like in the games, The Arbiter had not yet received his prestigious rank at this time, that is a pretty weak excuse when considering that even prior to this promotion, Thel ‘Vadamee (which was The Arbiter’s real name prior to receiving the Arbiter rank) was a well-respected Covenant Commander who was involved in much of the Human-Covenant War. Showing his early days prior to becoming the Arbiter we know and love would make for an interesting setup that could be paid off down the line, and give some on-screen backstory for a character fans desperately want to see. Even if he’s not sporting his iconic armor and title yet, having ‘Vadamee in the second season of Halo would be a welcome addition for fans everywhere.
Halo is streaming now on Paramount+