Followingan ending that could change Master Chief forever, Paramount+‘sHaloseries will enter Season 2 with some time between Cortana’s takeover of John-117. The final fight left the armored hero stoic and unemotional, putting him closer in line with his video game counterpart and setting up an intriguing storyline about his apparent loss of humanity. Speaking to Collider’sSteve Weintrauband other reporters last year on set, theHaloteam isn’t content to immediately pick back up with the Spartan where they left off. Series starsPablo SchreiberandKate Kennedyalong with directorOtto Bathurstall attested that there’s a sizable time jump to progress its characters and the story to a more satisfying starting point.
The gap between Season 1 and Season 2 won’t span entire years, but Kennedy and Schreiber note it’ll be around four to six months beforeMaster Chief takes the screen again. That’ll give time for Silver Team to recover from their nearly deadly final battle and for the new John to settle in and potentially recuperate from the experience of merging with Cortana to survive. The ending marked a definite and crushing departure from how the series had attempted to build up Master Chiefas a more human characterthrough his relationships.
Schreiber teased, however, thatSeason 2 was willing to make serious changes, even to the point of uprooting what’s seen as definitive in Season 1:
“Yeah, four, five, or six months, something like that. There’s a bit of a time gap. I think that’s probably almost all we’re allowed to reveal [laughs]. But a bit of time has passed, and not all of the things that were set in stone at the end of Season 1 are set in stone at the top of Season 2. There has been some change and time has passed, soexactlywhere we are, I can’t tell you until you tune in, but that’s the broad strokes.”
‘Halo’ Season 2 Will Drop Viewers Into the Middle of a New Storyline
While Season 2 will inevitably pick up plot threads left behind in Season 1, Bathurst revealed thatHalowill return right in the middle of something newfor these characters. The goal is for events and revelations to unravel as the season progresses, looking back athow everyone changed and what occurred in the months between seasons that culminated in the main conflict for Season 2. He explained:
“So this year we pick up – it’s not clearly defined – it’s roughly sort of five or six months later. And that’s been really fun, actually, because that big time jump is– I mean, that’s quite a big time jump in the story, and has enabled us to make some quite big steps forward in the second season. So we’re able to jump forward characters, and so you kind of land in the second season, and you’re going, ‘Oh, wow, what’s going on here?’ And, ‘What’s happened here?’ And then, it all gets unraveled as we go along.”
The time jump is also there as a way forHaloto improve based on feedback and how the show has progressed. Some of the plot points introducedwere controversial among fans, especiallya certain relationship he carried onthat could’ve doomed the UNSC’s most important stronghold. While Season 2 will hardly undo the controversial actions that have already occurred, Bathurst explains that it will hit a soft reset button with the time jump and pick up the storylines that worked while lessening the presence of those that didn’t:
“But I think it’s really exciting to be taking that leap ahead, rather than just sort of doing an exact continuation of where you left off. It’s enabled us to sort of really accelerate some of the really fun stories, drop, or lower, some of the stories that weren’t working quite so well, and just be freer with where we take it in this next season.”
HaloSeason 2drops on February 8. You can catch up on the first season on Paramount+ now and readour full guidefor everything we know about the upcoming season.
