It only took a few years for it to be said, but if you thought that Showtime, the cable network which built its reputation on great prestige dramas and comedies like Homeland and Weeds, was an odd fit for the series adaptation of Halo — well, Showtime presidents of entertainment Gary Levine and Jana Winograde agree with you.
After years of development, Showtime gave Halo a 10-episode season order in 2018, but in February 2021 it was announced that the series, still in production, would be moving to Paramount+ for a 2022 premiere. During a virtual press conference at the Television Critics Association press tour on Tuesday, Levine addressed this change by noting that "We started developing Halo seven years ago when there was no Paramount+ or even the glimmer of an idea about it, and it was always a bit of an odd fit, you know — what is Showtime doing taking a first-person shooter video game and putting it with their dramas?"
Winograde did note that while the series was under the Showtime umbrella, they were able to "imbue into the series the character drama that we're known for. But at the end of the day it is a big, broad, big tent show, so when Paramount plus came into being, it really was a natural fit there."
Levine added that "it doesn't leave a hole in our heart" to have the show no longer set for a Showtime premiere, pointing to their excitement about the upcoming series The Man Who Fell to Earth, which had been originally developed for Paramount+ but was part of a "one-time trade" between the two platforms.
As for the upcoming Paramount+ premiere for Halo, Winograde promised that the show "is going to launch this in an amazing way, and they are going to throw big resources at it and that's going to be tremendous for the company as a whole, for, you know 343, which owns the Halo franchise, and for us as the studio."
Winograde wouldn't completely rule out the possibility that Halo might one day be aired on Showtime, but "Paramount+ has a big tent for shows that are four-quadrant. It was in that mountain of entertainment, [while] Showtime has our sophisticated premium curated shows."
After a long development cycle, Halo stars Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, Natascha McElhone, Bokeem Woodbine and more. It is set for a 2022 premiere.