A few months after finding its Master Chief in American Gods‘ Pablo Schreiber, the Showtime adaptation of Microsoft’s hit game series Halo has began fleshing its cast out with the additions of Natascha McElhone (Californication), Bokeem Woodbine (Overlord), Shabana Azmi (Fire), Bentley Kalu (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Natasha Culzac (The Witcher) and Kate Kennedy (Catastrophe), according to Deadline.
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Otto Bathurst (Robin Hood, Peaky Blinders, Black Mirror) will be directing Showtime’s adaptation of the Halo series. Based on the award-winning and record-shattering Xbox franchise, the 10-episode season will be written by Kyle Killen (Awake) who is also set as the showrunner, and executive producer.
McElhone is attached to portray both Dr. Catherine Halsey, creator of the Spartan supersoldiers, and Cortana, the most advanced artificial intelligence in human history and potentially the key to the survival of the human race, while Woodbine has signed on to star as Soren-066, described as “a morally complex privateer at the fringes of human civilization whose fate will bring him into conflict with his former military masters and his old friend, the Master Chief,” and Azmi will play Admiral Margaret Parangosky, the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
British actor Kalu will play Spartan Vannak-134, a “cybernetically augmented supersoldier conscripted at childhood who serves as the defacto deputy to the Master Chief”. British actress Culzac will star in the role of Spartan Riz-028, described as “a focused, professional and deadly, cybernetically enhanced killing machine.” Kennedy stars as Spartan Kai-125, an all-new curious and deadly Spartan supersoldier.
Reinventing how people think about video games, Halo and has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon. The franchise has sold more than 77 million copies worldwide and has grossed more than $5 billion in sales.
In the Showtime adaptation, Halo will take place in the universe that first came to be in 2001, dramatizing an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure, and a richly imagined vision of the future.
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Halo is produced by Showtime in association with Microsoft/343 Industries, along with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television. Scott Pennington will executive produce alongside Killen and Wyatt, along with Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank for Amblin Television. The series will be distributed globally by CBS Studios International.
Halo the series will begin production later this year in Budapest and is set to premiere in the first quarter of 2021.
(Photo Credit: Backgrid Images)
