Here's How The Halo TV Show Is Shaping Up Right Now

The Halo TV show, which has been in development for a very long time, hit a bit of speedbump at the end of 2018 when director Rupert Wyatt (Planet of the Apes) dropped out. Microsoft has now confirmed it is is "knee-deep" in conversations with potential replacements.

Kiki Wolfkill, the head of Transmedia efforts at 343, said in a blog post that 2018 was a "year of momentum and energy" for the Halo TV show, and this included "a few roadbumps." In better news, the project continues to move ahead, and work is being done on the scripts and even prototyping of physical props. As for who may replace Wyatt in the director's chair, Wolfkill said more details will be shared in the time ahead.

It sounds like the Halo TV show is still in the very early stages, however, as Wolfkill said she and colleague Frank O'Connor (Halo franchise director) are still building the "foundation" of the series. Whatever the case, Halo fans eager to know the project hasn't been abandoned or forgotten have some good news in this update.

"It's been a year of momentum and energy and a few roadbumps along the way but we are ending the year on the Halo TV series happily exhausted," Wolfkill said. "Not unlike game development, it has been a very rapid pace over the last few months of script refinement, concepting, and practical prototyping (but unlike game development, much of this is physical prototyping which is a whole other thrill)! There have been short flights, long flights (ask [Frank O'Connor] about his unobtainium flight status), skype calls, and working sessions all of which have left us excited to come back in January and continue to build our foundation for this show.

"In the meantime, we're knee-deep in director conversations and will share deets when we're back!"

Wyatt, who directed Rise of the Planet of the Apes, left the Halo TV show due to scheduling conflicts. He said he enjoyed the time he spent working on the show, saying it was a "creatively rich and rewarding experience with a phenomenal team."

The Halo TV show will air on Showtime, whose parent company, CBS, also owns GameSpot. Network president of programming Gary Levine said in his own statement that the Halo show is "evolving beautifully with rich characters, compelling stories, and powerful scripts."

The production demands for the Halo TV show continue to be "enormous," Levine said. As such, Showtime needed to add more time to the production schedule, and this meant that Wyatt had to drop out. Showtime said previously that Halo is the network's "most ambitious series ever," and that's notable given Showtime is behind some massive productions such as Homeland, Shameless, Billions, and more recently the Jim Carrey show Kidding.

The Halo TV show will feature Master Chief in some capacity, but it remains to be seen if he is the lead, or what other characters might join him. Kyle Killen (Awake) will serve as writer, showrunner, and executive producer.

Showtime has ordered 10 hour-long episodes of Halo for its first season. The Halo show was originally announced back in 2013 with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television set to produce, which it still is.

In other Halo news, Microsoft recently shared more details about the much-anticipated Halo Infinite. Specifically, we learned the game will feature four-player split-screen support, which is notable considering Halo 5 had no split-screen at all.