A big knock against Paramount+ is that its content library doesn’t stand out from the pack. If you’re already a fan of Star Trek (represented by 5 different original series on Paramount) or the many reality-shows in their stable, then the streamer is a no-brainer. If you are not already a fan of those things, it might not have the range to draw you in. On March 24th, one of their highest profile attempts to change that will debut with the long-awaited premiere of Halo, based on the influential Xbox sci-fi franchise of the same name.

RELATED: New ‘Halo’ Trailer Gives an Even Better Look at Paramount+’s Video Game Adaptation

What is Halo, and what is it about?

Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief in Halo
Image via Paramount

Halo: Combat Evolved was a first-person shooter released on the very same date as the original Xbox, serving as the Microsoft console’s flagship title. This first entry in the Halo franchise—as well as its sequels—distilled something players of GoldenEye 007 had already built a community around: the addictive joy of shooting at your friends in a video game. So powerful was this joy, it took Halo’s many sequels—and spinoff novels and spinoff comics—to drive home the matter the story it was telling.

In the world of Halo, it’s the 26th Century and mankind is at war. Humanity has developed slip-space travel, allowing for interplanetary colonization. They’ve developed technology so robust it facilitates the augmentation of human beings, and the armor they wear, creating a class of soldier they call Spartans. Humans have made prosperous colonies on across many planets, most notably a planet known as Reach.

The Spartans are raised from childhood for the purposes of combat, are encouraged to be interested in little beyond that, and to feel even less. Lucky thing, because that future-war is being fought against a religious alliance of alien races seeking to destroy and subjugate. They are known as the Covenant, and they’ve made their own advancements in technology, as well as advancements in zealotry and grudge-holding.

After the Covenant destroys the human colony on Reach, a group of Spartans, led by one Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, travels faster than light away that planet, in hopes of leading the Covenant away from the planet Earth.

It is here that the story of the first game begins. Paramount’s TV adaptation will exist in a version of that world, though the creators—including executive producer Steven Spielberg — are vocal about this not being a direct adaptation, but a singular mix of these ingredients.

Who is Master Chief?

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Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 (that’s a military rank, by the way) is the most frequent playable protagonist in the Halo games. Many who know nothing else about Halo can likely clock Master Chief on sight. He is the camo green-wearing tank of a man rocking full-body combat gear. He looks like a robot, like Robocop gone BMX.

John-117 was born on one of the previously mentioned human colonies, was conscripted, as a child, to the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) and their Spartan program. Without delving into possible spoilers, John goes through nearly a decade of combat training and emerges a natural leader. These Spartans are not born that way, they are made, and John takes to that making with an adeptness beyond his peers. As an adult, he is one of the best soldiers that mankind has. Based loosely—as far as personalities go—on roles popularized by Clint Eastwood, he’s meant to be a man of action over words, of results over finesse or diplomacy. In a game of wall-to-wall action like Halo, these are the ingredients for the perfect avatar.

Who plays Master Chief on the show?

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Image via STX Entertainment

On the show he’ll be played by Orange is the New Black’s Pablo Schreiber, known by many of that show’s fans as “Pornstache”. Schreiber is an expressive actor with a still intensity and a mean sneer. These are not tools you hire just to hide beneath a helmet, no matter how cool it is. For this kind of character, the bar has been set rather high by Pedro Pascal over on Disney Plus.

Of course, Schreiber has the games as source material for his in-costume work. But as the games evolved, so did the reliance on mo-cap and voice work to bring Master Chief to life, but even then, he has never been a face. In order to play this opaque warrior—and to mimic the journey of discovery afforded by slowly unfurling his personality over several installments—the show has stripped their Master Chief of his memory. His emotions are suppressed by a chemical dampener. This means its first season will likely be just as much about the audience getting to know the man they’re watching as it will the actor getting to know the man he is playing.

Already green-lit for a Season 2, there is opportunity for Schreiber and the creative team to make this the definitive version of the character. And it might mean Paramount Plus gets what any fledgling streamer could hope for—its very own Mandalorian.