Soon after the video game The Last of Us Part II was released back in 2020, series co-creator Neil Druckmann mentioned that a story had been written that would involve the Tommy Miller character – kicking off rumors that there was already an outline for a The Last of Us Part III video game. In the documentary Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II, Druckmann says that’s not accurate – but goes on to reveal that there is a concept for another game in the series.
In the documentary (which was released through YouTube), Druckmann addresses the rumors of the Tommy Miller story serving as the basis of The Last of Us Part III. He says, with thanks to our friends at Bloody Disgusting for the transcription, “The headlines across the industry were like, ‘Naughty Dog has outlined The Last of Us Part III.’ And that’s actually wrong. It was always a small story, it was never a full title. At the time, we had higher priorities at Naughty Dog, to fix our pipeline, to fix work-life balance issues. Just based on where we were, I didn’t wanna prioritize this story, so that story was shelved. I still believe one day it will see the light of day. I don’t know if it’ll be a game or a show… TBD.“
Druckmann went on to talk about the first two games being built on the theme on doing whatever’s necessary for those you love – and revealed that there is a concept in place for a third game that is “as exciting as I, as exciting as II, is its own thing, yet has this through-line for all three.”
The story of the The Last of Us video game is set years after a fungal plague wiped out much of humanity, transforming most into vicious zombie-like monsters, the story follows Joel, who’s living in a militarized quarantine zone. He has a close relationship with Tess, who operates in the black market of this community. Together, they’ve become known by the local criminal underworld for their ruthlessness. On a mission to reclaim their stolen guns, they run into the leader of the Fireflies, a resistance group, who tasks them with smuggling a young girl named Ellie out of the zone. This mission soon becomes much more than they were prepared for.
Are you a fan of the Last of Us video games and would you like to see a The Last of Us Part III get made? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
The episode of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? covering The Prophecy II was Written by Mike Holtz, Narrated by Adam Walton, Edited by Jaime Vasquez, Produced by Andrew Hatfield and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
In 1995, Gregory Widen, writer of Backdraft and Highlander set out to tell a story about the darker side of angels with The Prophecy, formerly known as Daemons and God’s Army. The story involved an archangel named Gabriel, played by the absolute legend that is Christopher Walken, who had become jealous of God’s love for human beings. Or as he referred to us… monkeys. Does that make Ross from Friends our daddy? I knew some ladies (and men) in the 90s that would have totally been into that LOOK, WE’RE GETTING SIDETRACKED. The hurt was so deep for Gabriel and these fallen angels that it caused a Civil War in heaven between the obedient angels and the rebellious ones. Meanwhile on earth, a very bad man dies and his soul is so evil that whichever side retrieved it would completely alter the ESPN win probability rate in their favor. So, Gabriel comes to earth to retrieve it and turn Heaven into Hell by doing so BUT has his plot foiled by some good folks and Lucifer who’s probably a less good person but did happen to be wearing Viggo Mortenson. So, that’s cool. The film was an extremely cool idea with a killer cast that included everyone from Pulp Fiction’s Eric Stoltz to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s Elias Koteas but also suffered from pacing and heady exposition. The one thing everyone could agree on was that Christopher Walken playing a blood thirsty evil angel was a stroke of pure genius. In the end, the film doubled its $8 million dollar budget and as you would typically expect was resurrected and brought back for a sequel that re-casted Christopher Walken in the titular role again and was released straight to… home video? Wait, what? That’s right folks. This was a DIMENSION FILMS property….and this is WTF happened to… The Prophecy II.
Look, I’m going to be honest with you, this movie is somehow a ghost in the machine. For a movie produced and distributed by a film studio where the stories are never ending, there’s simply not a lot out there about The Prophecy II (watch it HERE), which is a shame because it’s an insanely weird and entertaining movie. What we do know is that for whatever reason, original creator Gregory Widen would come back as writer in “characters written by” status only and would be replaced in the director’s chair by a man who’d just impressed Dimension Films executives with his work on their other direct to video property Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering. Yes, someone was impressed by Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering. Don’t make me say it a third time, I’m hanging on by a thread as it is, man! That man was Greg Spence and The Prophecy II would be the last movie he directed to this day. Don’t feel bad for him however as he went on to be a Producer of projects like Game of Thrones and The Last of Us TV series. He’s doing just dandy. Spence would go on to tell Cinefantastique that he was “quite happy with the experience” of directing The Prophecy II for the executives at Dimension Films in the mid-nineties which will definitely make you question whether or not he was being held at gunpoint. Blink twice if you’re in danger, Greg.
Spence was teamed up with Matt Greenberg (who would go on to write Halloween H20, 1408 and the Pet Sematary remake among other things) and they were told that the Weinstein’s wanted Walken back as Gabriel and also wanted the archangel Michael added into the fray. The crew then dug into Genesis in the Bible and came up with a story that not only tied into the original film but also amped up the entertainment factor. As Spence put it himself “we were interested in seeing the interesting elements of mythology kept, but making the film a little more genre, a little racier and maybe a little more scary than the first one”. They undoubtably succeeded in making The Prophecy II fit the trappings of the horror genre at the time. The deeply serious tones of the original (which were sometimes welcome and other times boring) are replaced here more action, Walken one liners and a faster paced storyline with a brisk hour and twenty-three-minute running time (GOD I miss those). Walken was as entertaining as ever and it wasn’t by accident. Spence says, “We had a lot of fun with Walken’s lines” and they purposefully infused a fish out of water storyline for the character of Gabriel. Here is this guy who’s ultra powerful, blood thirsty and scary as Hell, an evil archangel who has been around so long he’s literally the one who told Mary she was pregnant with Jesus…..and he’s completely bested by…..an MS DOS computer in a Dry Cleaners office. It’s genuinely hilarious and entertaining. Walken knows exactly what we want and he’s not afraid to give it to us; Vulcan-angel pinching humans left and right with a tap on the head and a “SHUSH” as they drop immediately to the floor as he floats by them with the seriousness of a man shopping for potato chipsbut he’s also capable of carrying the same vengeful tenacity he had during his scariest moments in the first film. Walken puts quite a show in what is dare I say his most underappreciated performance. The entire film has many similarities to its predecessor but is a whole heck of a lot quicker and infused with a lot more fun. It’s almost reminiscent of an Evil Dead to Evil Dead 2 type of scenario where the film feels the same only…..slightly drunk and much more care free.
Even the plot is alike in many ways. Where the original story was about Gabriel coming to earth to steal an evil soul, The Prophecy II focuses on Gabriel being kicked out of Hell with Lucifer claiming that Hell wasn’t “big enough for the both of them”. It’s like that movie Houseguest with Sinbad! Only its Satan and it’s actually nothing like that at all.
If you’re like me, you’re imagining Satan kicking Gabriel out like Uncle Phil would Jazzy Jeff in Fresh Prince of Belair. The front gate to Hell opens and Christopher Walken comes flying out with the devil slamming the door behind him. It’s not, unfortunately, but it is the next best thing when it decides to shamelessly borrow from James Cameron’s The Terminator. Here, Lucifer kisses his fingertips in a very uncomfortably close shot of his lips so that you can’t tell that Viggo Mortenson was re-cast, then wipes them across the pavement of the street like a cop about to taste the bad guys cocaine to make sure it’s real. We all know why you do it, guys. Come on. Next thing you know there’s lightning everywhere, the street opens up volcano style, a CGI car melts into it and out of it crawls a butt naked Christopher Walken, covered in goo and all I can think in this moment is ….if he’s not got any clothes or pockets? We all know where he’s keeping that pocket watch.
However you want to slice it, Gabriel is back on earth and once again, he’s on a mission. This time, it’s to stop a Nephilim from being born. Which, in this case, is someone who doesn’t rewind their video tapes before returning them to the video store. Actually, it’s a half baby/half angel that would eventually be the bridge to peace between the angels holding a Jerry Springer marathon upstairs. This was all prophesized by Thomas Daggett who is now played by Re-Animator’s Bruce Abbott instead of Elias Koteas because it’s the 90’s baby! There are no rules!
Gabriel goes on the hunt for Sarah Connor, I mean, nurse Valerie (played by the wide eyed and game for anything Jennifer Beals) who moments before had just experienced the reverse version of that scene from Don’t Be a Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, where Dashiki sleeps with Loc Dog and realizes she’s pregnant two minutes later. After sleeping with an angel after accidentally hitting him with her car. This what dudes had to do to get dates before the internet, people! So, the angel she slept with, Reece, I mean Danyael go on the run to protect the angel monkey in her stomach as the T-1000, I mean, Gabriel hunts them down. I think you get the point I’m trying to make here.
This movie is more influenced by the Terminator than that kid from Halloween 2018 was influenced by girls feeding him guacamole in all those sexy kinds of ways. I’m not complaining. It’s a blast! Gabriel is once again on the warpath as he finds Thomas from the previous film (once again, now a totally different human being) and drops a haunting one liner on him before lighting him on fire.Which, is something he’ll do multiple times throughout the film. Still yet, the Terminator franchise comparisons don’t stop as The Prophecy II goes as far as borrowing from the “fish out of water” storyline from Terminator 2… and to great success. Gabriel realizes quickly that he doesn’t know how to use computers, guns, cars or even walkie talkiesand brings back to life a young girl who’s just committed co-suicide with her boyfriend by smashing their car into a concrete wall so they could be together forever in the afterlife. This absolute shot of 90’s life is Izzy, played by the forever unforgettable Brittany Murphy in a role that was perfect for her. Gabriel tells Izzy that he’s not going to let her be with her boyfriend in the afterlife until she helps him complete his mission.
Think the plot explanation ends here? THINK AGAIN! Our hunter/prey storyline ends up in Eden from the Bible where the archangel Michael first makes his appearance played by none other than karate angel Eric Effin’ Roberts. The Best of the Best indeed! Danyael and Valerie came here looking for solace but found it to be less Eden-ey and more THE LITERAL STEEL WAREHOUSE FROM THE TERMINATOR.
The explanation for Eden becoming a Freddy Krueger boiler room is that it became an “industrial wasteland” due to everything going on with wars of Heaven (cough, convenient for the budget, cough). Whatever, Eric Roberts is here and he’s badass! Gabriel shows up and he and Michael have one hell of an archangel to archangel Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro dining room Heat moment before Gabriel continues his chase that leads to both Danyael and Izzy dying. This all leads to Arnold Schwarzenegger being slowly leveled into a pit of volcano juice with his thumbs up- Oh wait sorry, got my lines crossed again. It ends with Gabriel and Valerie on a moving steel apparatus that seems like something out of one of the dungeon levels from Super Mario Bros. Here, she reveals to Gabriel that God may not speak to him….but he does speak to her. Oh, snap. “He’s busy, bro”. Overcome with pain and jealousy in yet another great acting moment for Walken, he asks her what God says to her. She says “jump” before she grabs him and they both plummet to the ground where Gabriel is impaled on a spike but she is left unharmed. That’s some Scream VI character level luck right there! Good for you Valerie!
The film comes to a halt with Michael turning Gabriel into a human being as punishment for being such a world class prick. We last see him begging for change on a street corner across from a payphone and ranting.This sets us all up perfectly for another sequel of Walken/Gabriel badassery. Valerie decides to raise the child alone and the film leaves us with a powerful statement about how you can’t let the fear of the future stop you from raising your kids with love. The exact place we all knew the horror movie about rage filled angels was going to lead us!
It’s really an amazing accomplishment that this direct to video sequel manages to be so quickly paced and full of fun and action. So much is going on in this hour and twenty-three minutes that we haven’t even yet mentioned that in the most random of all movie cameos, Glenn Danzig of The Misfits and well, you know….Danzig (MOTHAAAA!) plays an angel named Samayel who dies in a street fight that’s a direct call back to the first Prophecy film. It’s the one where they smell each other like Schwarzenegger smelling bad guys coming downhill in Commando and leap out of windows multiple stories high to meet midair just to hug violently and fall back to the ground. I’m not sure why we felt the need to do this exact scene again but why not? Let’s run it back only this time we’re going to use Danzig and he’s going to get his heart ripped out of his chest. Just for funsies. Who wants a margarita?
Somehow, someway, Dimension Films, Greg Spence and Matt Greenberg teamed up and managed to get not only an even better performance out of Walken than the first time around but gave the film an entirely new spirit by casting the charismatic and loveable Brittany Murphy, even if Izzy is a total… to borrow a phrase from Brad Pitt’s Detective Mills in Seven… “Nut-bag, movie of the week” who keeps trying to shoot herself in diners so she can be with her boyfriend in the afterlife. It’s provocative! It gets the people going!
Dimension couldn’t bring back everyone but they did some nice cast finagling to get around the departure of Viggo the Luciferian and Elias Koteas. Actually, the only returning star besides Walken was the scene stealing Steve Hytner as the morgue doctor who does his own entertaining version of the “You’re all doomed” guy from Friday the 13th here.
In the end, The Prophecy II is a direct to video sequel that may be an afterthought due to the circumstances but really shouldn’t have been. The film clearly features a director, writer and cast who were very invested even as they worked the dusk until dawn schedule six nights a week while filming. Still, the director said, “it was a great bunch of people to stay up all night with” and I think you can tell by everyone’s engaging performances just how game everyone was for this wild little movie. Who wouldn’t have fun with this bat-shit crazy story that involves Christopher Walken walking around melting people’s faces literally and physically? And that my friends, is WTF happened to The Prophecy II. Thanks for watching! What’s your favorite Christopher Walken performance of all time? It’s impossible to choose for me but I’ll certainly tell you the weirdest you’ll ever see… 1989’s Communion. Walken being probed by aliens. Or is he probing them? Thank me later! Have a great day!
A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
John Krasinski’s family film, IF, will be showcasing a special big game commercial during Super Bowl LVIII. And to tease audiences, we’re treated to a little behind-the-scenes video hosted by Ryan Reynolds and John Krasinski. Except, Krasinski may seem slightly different than you remember. This is because Randall Park once again steps in for Krasinski in a nod to the famous bit from The Office where Park played “Asian Jim” in an attempt to freak out Rainn Wilson’s Dwight. This time, the film’s star, Ryan Reynolds, is the one not buying this little prank. But as best as he tries to call him out, Krasinski remains two steps ahead with a behind-the-scenes video complete with Park as Krasinski.
The official synopsis from Paramount reads, “From writer and director John Krasinski, IF is about a girl who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends — and what she does with that superpower — as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids. IF stars Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Cailey Fleming, Fiona Shaw, and the voices of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr. and Steve Carell alongside many more as the wonderfully unique characters that reflect the incredible power of a child’s imagination.”
The cast that joins Krasinski includes Ryan Reynolds, Cailey Fleming, Fiona Shaw, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., Alan Kim, Liza Colón-Zayas and reunites Krasinski with his Dunder-Mifflin boss, Steve Carell. The movie is produced by John Krasinski, Allyson Seeger, Ryan Reynolds and Andrew Form. Krasinski writes and directs with the executive producers including John J. Kelly and George Dewey. Allyson Seeger, p.g.a., John Krasinski, p.g.a., Andrew Form, p.g.a. and Ryan Reynolds are all on board as producers of the film.
Krasinski would explain that this “extremely personal” project was something made for his kids to finally see, Krasinski explains, “IF is a movie that I made for my kids because I don’t think they’re allowed to see A Quiet Place; Emily [Blunt] calls it PG-40, ‘You’ll get to see it when you’re 40!’ So I had to make a movie that they could see, and I’m really, really excited about it. I mean, Ryan Reynolds is as good as it gets in every single way, shape and form, and this incredible phenom of an actress, Cailey Fleming, is in the movie. For me, it was just about what if we could tell a story about these time capsules? Imaginary friends are adorable and all those things, but they’re also time capsules of your hopes, dreams, and ambitions when you were the most fertile of a brain, and it never goes away. I think we’re told that we’re adults instead of what if you realize that you never stopped being a kid.”
The upcoming Deadpool 3 unexpectedly has a lot riding on it. Not only is it going to serve as the first example of how mutants and more R-rated characters will interact with the MCU, it’s also got to appease those excited by the return of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Unfortunately, it’s also got another expectation it…
The upcoming Deadpool 3 unexpectedly has a lot riding on it. Not only is it going to serve as the first example of how mutants and more R-rated characters will interact with the MCU, it’s also got to appease those excited by the return of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Unfortunately, it’s also got another expectation it…
Ladies and gents, it’s time again for the Golden Schmoes! That’s right! It’s time for the 22nd edition of the longest running online fan movie awards. If you’re new to the site and don’t know what The Golden Schmoes are all about, you can read all about them right HERE. However, with these awards, what we like to do is put the power of choosing both the nominees and winners for what we consider the Best Movies of The Year in YOUR hands. So if you’re annoyed that movies like The Iron Claw were shut out of the Oscars, or just can’t get over the supposed Greta Gerwig snub for Barbie, you’ve come to the right place! Do you think Ben Affleck deserved some love for Air? Have your say here! And how about Godzilla Minus Zero? Did the best-ever Kaiju movie deserve more awards attention? Let’s give the big guy a Golden Schmoe!
All you need is a valid email address and, once the nomination period opens up on Monday (Feb 12) at 10am EST on the official site, you pick the nominees and the winners.
Here’s our timeline:
Voting for nominees starts Feb 12th at 10am EST and closes Feb 17th (at 11:59 pm EST) and will take place on the official site. We’ll announce the official nominees on Feb 19th and you can begin VOTING for the winners from February 19th through March 2nd. Winners will be announced on Friday,March 8th!
Nominations start a week from today, and we’ll post an article getting into the nitty-gritty and running down the specific categories, but you can check out past winners here. If you need a refresher on which movies came out in 2023, you can find all of the major releases right here.
Suffice to say, we’re super proud of our awards and are dying to find out what you all think are the year’s best movies. Sometimes the Academy, critics, and guilds seem out of touch with what people are actually watching. So if you have a movie you’re rooting for, make sure to let us know in the comments below. For me, I’m hoping the folks behind my second favorite movie of the year, The Iron Claw, get recognized, while also finding room to honour those who DIDN’T get snubbed, like Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers, and Christopher Nolan for his Herculean-effort, Oppenheimer. Hopefully this 22nd edition of the Golden Schmoes is one of our best ever!
Spyglass Media and Paramount Pictures wanted to move quickly on Scream 7… then the version of the film they wanted to move quickly on crumbled piece by piece. Scream (2022) and Scream VI directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are finishing work on their Universal Monsters movie Abigail (formerly known as Dracula’s Daughter), so with returning writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick working on the script, the companies hired Freaky and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon to direct the film and started reaching out to actors. Jenna Ortega allegedly wanted a substantial pay raise to reprise the role of Tara Carpenter… and as we saw when Neve Campbell dropped out of Scream VI due to a pay dispute, these pay issues don’t tend to work out. So Ortega was out, but Melissa Barrera was on board to come back as Tara’s sister Samantha. Until she was fired from the project after comments she made about the Israel-Hamas war didn’t go over well with executives at Spyglass. Soon after, Landon left the project, saying what had been a dream job had turned into a nightmare. (He has since set up a werewolf thriller called Big Bad.) Now the script has been reworked, Spyglass and Paramount have apparently reached out to Neve Campbell, and rumors are spreading about another director being in the running to take the helm.
An “insider” has informed In Touch Weekly that “Neve is definitely considering returning. She loves the franchise and wants to go back, but on her terms.” So at this point, it seems the powers-that-be may be willing to pay Campbell her asking price in an effort to salvage Scream 7. Campbell recently had to cancel a March convention appearance because she’ll be filming something that month, stirring up speculation that Scream 7 might be getting rushed into production that soon.
Meanwhile, YouTuber Craven Something Scary has heard that John Hyams may be the frontrunner to land the directing job. Hyams’ previous credits include Universal Soldier: Regeneration, Dragon Eyes, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, Alone, and episodes of Z Nation, Black Summer, and Chucky. He was also attached to direct a Maniac Cop remake that never made it into production. What really makes Hyams stand out as a potential Scream director is the fact that he worked with original Scream writer Kevin Williamson on the slasher movie Sick. Hyams would be a great choice, but apparently he has competition from “a female director” that has so far gone unnamed.
Would you like to see a Scream 7 that’s directed by John Hyams and stars Neve Campbell? Share your thoughts on this possibility by leaving a comment below.
I have a strange relationship with The Last of Us Part II. During its launch in 2020, I was part of a publication dedicated exclusively to highlighting accessible innovations and disabled perspectives in the games industry. As the Mobility Editor of Can I Play That, I edited plenty of features, news posts, and reviews…
I have a strange relationship with The Last of Us Part II. During its launch in 2020, I was part of a publication dedicated exclusively to highlighting accessible innovations and disabled perspectives in the games industry. As the Mobility Editor of Can I Play That, I edited plenty of features, news posts, and reviews…
PLOT: In season two, Master Chief John-117 leads his team of elite Spartans against the alien threat known as the Covenant. In the wake of a shocking event on a desolate planet, John cannot shake the feeling that his war is about to change and risks everything to prove what no one else will believe – that the Covenant are preparing to attack humanity’s greatest stronghold. With the galaxy on the brink, John embarks on a journey to find the key to humankind’s salvation, or its extinction — the Halo.
REVIEW: Halo debuted in 2022 with fifteen years of development baggage heaped on top of it. With sky-high expectations for the series, anything less than a seismic shift in video game adaptations was bound to fail. Halo debuted with a muted response that found the Game of Thrones-esque intrigue and conspiracies distracting from what made the game one of the biggest franchises in history. Now, two years and one showrunner later, Halo‘s second season aims to partially reset those expectations and they succeed. With more action and a tone closer to that of the games, Halo is finally the series we have been waiting for. Led by Pablo Schrieber who wears Master Chief’s helmet as often this time around as he doesn’t, this second season of Halo is a substantial improvement over the first and will likely silence any critics of what came before by delivering a more balanced blend of action sequences along with character development that reminded me as much of the Halo video games as it did top-tier genre television series.
The first season of Halo ended with a series of reveals and showdowns that led to the disappearance of Dr. Halsey (Natascha McElhonne), the escape of Makee (Charlie Murphy) after saving John (Schreiber) and unveiling of a star map that leads to Halo, and John left in a coma-like state that allowed Cortana to take control of him. This season opens with minimal explanation of those events and thrusts Silver Team onto a mission where they are rescuing refugees before it can be destroyed by Covenant. It is there that John encounters the alien enemy in a foggy battle that sets up a mystery this season that will challenge his personal ideals as well as the bonds between ONI, UNSC, and the Spartans themselves. The first episodes begin with a ton of action but also lead to a significant amount of character development for John and the other members of his squad. It is a strong opening to the season that connects to events from the prior episodes but forges a strong and distinct tone for the run that follows.
The biggest problem that I had with the first season of Halo was that it felt more focused on creating factions and warring parties, like Game of Thrones, that it failed to capture what fans loved about the Halo games. This season has more action, but it still distinguishes itself from the video game format by making this a character-based series. This run of Halo reminded me more of the acclaimed and fan-favorite series The Expanse with a balanced perspective from the full ensemble of characters. This season, much more time is given to Silver team members Kai (Kate Kennedy), Riz (Natasha Culzac), and Vannak (Bentley Kalu), all of whom get helmet-less arcs that balance that of Master Chief himself. The series also gives us more time with Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) and his wife Laera (Fionna O’Shaughnessy). We also keep Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha) as part of the story to strengthen the ongoing storylines begun last season. My first instinct last season was that this series would be a live-action take on the web series Red Vs. Blue, but to make a dramatic show worth investing in, the characters need to be worth caring about.
While elements of the first season are eschewed in favor of a more focused narrative this time around, there are new additions to the cast. Cristina Rodlo joins the ensemble as Talia Perez, a Marine corporal who appears early in the season premiere and plays a vital role in the ongoing arc which parallels that of Master Chief. Joseph Morgan plays James Ackerson, the successor to Dr. Halsey in running the Spartan program. Morgan could easily be mistaken for a villain the moment he comes on screen, but the true nature of how he fits into the overarching story has a bit more nuance than that. In the four episodes made available for this review, there is a noticeable focal point for the story, something that was very lacking in the kitchen sink approach of season one. This has pros and cons as the series definitely feels more like Halo but not because of the action. The world-building necessitated in the first season is greatly reduced, so the sophomore run gets to build on the heavy lifting that already took place.
New showrunner David Weiner, who previously developed the Peacock series Brave New World, brought on an entirely new writing staff this season including Ahmadu Garba, Marisha Mukerjee, Tom Hemmings, Basil Lee Kreimendahl, and Sarah McCarron. Otto Bathurst, who helmed episodes in season one, is the only returning helmer. Bathurst directed two episodes along with Debs Paterson, Craig Zisk, and Dennie Gordon who each helm a pair of chapters. The dynamic between all of these folks behind the scenes, coupled with video game advisor and producer Kiki Wolfkill overseeing the mythology of Halo, this season is streamlined and stronger for it. There are still weak spots, namely the CGI used on the Spartans themselves when engaged in action sequences, but the Covenant creatures and space landscapes look much better than before. The weakness of the computer effects in the Spartan-centric scenes takes a back seat to the bigger concern in the flatness of the overall feel of the show. The first season was somewhat boring and at times this season gets close to backsliding into that chasm, but it just barely stays out of it. Hopefully, this is a takeaway for the writers to avoid in the likely season three.
Everything about the second season of Halo is a substantial improvement over season one. Led by Pablo Schreiber’s deeper performance, improved special effects, stronger antagonists, and a more involved plot, you will not worry once about how often Master Chief is not wearing his signature helmet. With the shackles of development hell finally behind them, the creative talent behind Halo can once and for all deliver the series we have been waiting for. Halo is not quite at the level of The Last of Us but this season is a massive step in the right direction. I found the first season of this series to be average, at best, and it never redeemed itself for me. I came into this season with apprehension but found myself enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. There are still places where the series can be improved, especially in the CGI employed, but this season is a step in the right direction for delivering the series Halo fans have been waiting for.
The second season of Halo premieres on February 8th on Paramount+.
