Halo TV Show Star Details Intense Prep For Master Chief Role
Halo star Pablo Schreiber reveals that he went through two different boot camps to learn how to play his role. The television series, which premiered its first on Paramount+ today, is adapted from the XBOX game franchise of the same name. Halo takes place in the 26th century and sees humanity locked in an epic battle with an alien menace known as the Covenant. Although the show isn't following any specific storyline from the games, it is taking place within the universe and exploring many previously seen locations and characters, including bringing back Jen Taylor as the voice of the AI Cortana.
Pablo Schreiber, who is best known for his roles in television series like Orange is the New Black, The Wire, and American Gods, plays the role of Master Chief in Halo. Master Chief is the central character of the Halo franchise as a whole, having become the de facto mascot for both the series and XBOX in the platform's early days. He is a Spartan supersoldier who is best known for his signature green armor, though the series saw fit to have him remove his battle suit from time to time and show audiences the human being underneath the iconic Master Chief costume.
Screen Rant had the opportunity to sit down with Pablo Schreiber and discuss how he prepared to play such an iconic character. The actor revealed that the entire process was rather intense. First, he did a "boot camp" with 343, the studio behind the games, in which "they just took me through a five-day information download on everything Halo." Then, for the month before shooting began in Budapest, they "did a physical boot camp of just training and learning how to use the suits and the weapons and all those kinds of things." Read his full quote below:
I did a couple of boot camps. I did the 343 boot camp, which is the studio that makes the video game. I went up to Seattle and did the 343 boot camp with Kiki Wolfkill and Frank O'Connor, and they just took me through a five-day information download on everything Halo; the history of the games, and a deep dive into the mythology and lore. Then they sent me away with a whole bunch of resources and information that I could dive and dig into myself a lot. There's a lot, and it's amazing. It's so deeply realized and so rich.
And then I went to Budapest about a month before we shot, and we did a physical boot camp of just training and learning how to use the suits and the weapons and all those kinds of things.
As anyone who has played the games knows, there is a lot to learn when it comes to the Halo universe and its lore. Although the gameplay of the first-person shooters is reasonably straightforward, as the franchise has expanded, it has revealed a lot of the history of the universe as well as the military forces therein. For any actors joining the cast, which also includes stars like Bokeem Woodbine and Natascha McElhone, it was imperative that they be able to slip perfectly into that already fully-realized universe.
Although the prep for Halo was brutal, it almost certainly helped Pablo Schreiber get into the mindset of Master Chief, who is a hardened warrior. Spending so much time immersing himself in the world of the game probably gave him a much better appreciation for the way the character lives his life and the baggage he carries with him into battle. While the show has yet to air more than one episode, Master Chief is sure to get one of the biggest arcs of the series, so it's great news that the actor playing him has put so much work into bringing him to life.