The Halo TV series on Paramount+ was always billed as a non-canon take on the universe and characters from the iconic franchise developed by Bungie and 343 Industries. That didn’t stop fans from lamenting the “changes” made to characters like Master Chief and Cortana—and freaking out when season one contained a sex scene between the iconic Spartan supersoldier and a Covenant-sympathizing human named Makee (Charlie Murphy). Now, Master Chief actor Pablo Schreiber (Orange Is The New Black) has stated that he thinks the whole thing should have never happened.
In an interview with SFX magazine (via Games Radar), Schreiber said—with the truest of post-nut clarity—that the intimacy his John-117 and Murphy’s Makee shared was “a huge mistake.” He doesn’t mince words either, telling the publication he was vehemently against making their relationship a romantic one.
“The decision to make the connection between Makee and John a romantic connection was a huge mistake,” Schreiber told the magazine. “I felt it was a huge mistake at the time and I argued against it and fought against it. But I am who I am. I don’t write the scripts. I only give my opinion. It wasn’t listened to.”
The sex scene in question, which occurs in the eighth episode of the first season, was quite controversial when it aired back in May 2022. Fans of the show couldn’t believe how much producers Kiki Wolfkill and Steven Spielberg deviated from the source material, posting memes and expressing discontent with Master Chief losing his virginity. It was pretty tame, all things considered, with implied coitus by way of smash cuts instead of anything graphic. You don’t get to see any real steamy action between the two characters, save for some passionate kisses and touches. Though many viewers were angry about the deviations from Master Chief’s characterization (the man would never fuck in the video games), others pointed out that sketchiness of the relationship in question, considering Makee was, essentially, a prisoner of war.
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Wolfkill responded to the discourse in a May 2022 interview with Deadline, saying the choice for John-117, a rather cold and distant warrior, to make such an intimate connection with another human was “important” for his character:
I think ultimately what we’ve been able to deliver on with this season is a Master Chief who is wholly the soldier, and hero, and leader that he has always been and we also leave the season with a character in John who is really a fully defined character. It’s super interesting to be able to see his journey, and you know, admittedly some controversy along the way in getting there. My hope is that we can all sort of rise beyond that and sort of look at where we end up with Chief and with John going into season two. I believe really strongly that we have an amazing story to tell with him and we’ll continue to do so, and sometimes as we know with the Silver Timeline that it’ll be different than we’ve seen him before. But who he is as a character both as Master Chief and as John is wholly the same.
With a second season set to premiere on February 8 on Paramount+, it’ll be interesting to see how the series approaches the world going forward. We know this season will heavily focus on the Fall of Reach, a huge moment in Halo lore that involves a massive Covenant attack on a human-colonized planet. Does Schreiber’s interview point towards a potential course correction that hews closer to the source material? Or will Halo season two give us more instances of Master Chief doing stuff that he probably wouldn’t do in the games? He’s already had sex, ripped his stuffy helmet off, and shown bare ass. The sky’s the limit for John-117, though I’m sure Schreiber wishes the fearless Spartan were a bit less horny and a bit more modest.
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