What a long, strange trip it's been to adapt Halo into a TV series. The project was first developed--Steven Spielberg executive producing--to be released in 2015. Of course, that never happened. Since then, potential release dates in 2019 and 2020 have passed, leading us to now. Halo has finally arrived on Paramount+ with Spielberg still on board as an executive producer, bringing Master Chief and the fight against the Covenant alien race out of the games and into live-action.

After so long, though, it's easy to wonder if it was worth the wait. Honestly, there are many who assumed the show would never simply see the light of day. Now that it's here, though, we are pleased to report Halo is actually very good. It's a gorgeous and epic look at the Halo universe that feels right at home with the games you know, while not being bound to their events. The Halo TV series exists in its own canon within the franchise, meaning you don't have to worry about it bumping up against events you may know from the games, novels, or anything else that expounds on Halo's lore.

That's the best thing about this series. When something you love is adapted into another medium and set in the same canonical timeline, things can easily get messy. Character presentations have to be perfect and the possibility of breaking continuity becomes all too real.