A new Halo season 2 poster by Paramount Plus stirred up a bit of angst in the fanbase, prompting one fan to take matters into their own hands with a minor edit addressing the controversy.

While Halo season 1 received a mixed response when it debuted in 2022, the show garnered a strong following of longtime fans and new eyes sufficient to earn renewal for a second season at Paramount Plus. In early December 2023, the Halo season 2 release date was accidentally leaked by Paramount Plus. More recently, the first official promotional poster for the season was dropped, causing a bit of a stir among fans.

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While the Paramount Plus Halo series has seemingly gotten a lot right so far, one thing that fans did not appreciate was the unmasking of Master Chief, the central figure of the Halo franchise and a character who famously doesn’t take off his iconic helmet in the video games and related media. Despite this, actor Pablo Schreiber would reveal his face in the show’s first season and can again be seen without his helmet on the posters released for season 2, causing ire among fans. Similarly upset about the move, user Officer-skitty would take to the r/Halo Reddit board to post a fan-edited version of the erring poster with the irate caption, “How hard is it to just give us what we want?” with an added subtitle urging the show’s titular character to “Keep it on Chief.”

With the show's second season being one of the main things Halo fans can expect in 2024, the poster has received much attention. The edited poster is identical to the official post, except for Schreiber's face, which the intrepid fan behind the edit covered up with a Master Chief helmet likely taken from a promo image for one of Halo's video game entries. Users in the comment thread shared the same sentiment, with a few postulating that the move toward having the main character show his face likely has to do with the executives behind the show being averse to having a protagonist without a face. Others see it as potentially stemming from the actor’s contract or compensation structure, making the bizarre move easier to understand and less irksome to many fans.

While the Halo series was guaranteed to show Master Chief's face at some point, fans still reacted quite negatively to the scenes with the character out of his helmet, with many fans pointing to this as their biggest peeve about the show’s first season. Whatever the rationale behind the decision, the promotional poster seems to confirm that the show will still present its main character’s more human image regardless of the general distaste. Some might argue there’s no sanctity to the helmet now that the cat is out of the bag, and fans should be willing to see Schreiber perform without it in the second season. While it's unlikely that any fans who disliked the move in the first season will appreciate the show doubling down for the second, it likely won’t be a breaking point for viewers, as the show has much more to offer.

Halo season 2 premieres on Paramount Plus on February 8, 2024.

Halo is a science fiction first-person shooter and part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios. The franchise development originated with Bungie but has since transferred to 343 Industries. The series centers on a conflict between humanity and various alien species over installations called Halos, superweapons created by a mysterious race known as Forerunners. Launching in 2001 with Halo: Combat Evolved, the franchise has also spun off into books, comics, animated films, live-action TV, and much more.

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Source: Officer-skitty/Reddit