Actor Pablo Schreiber’s upcoming stint with sci-fi action series drama, Halo, is hailing a larger cast list as of Friday. The series will be based on the hit xBox game franchise and now signals acclaimed actress Natascha McElhone (Designated Survivor, Californication), Emmy nominee Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo), acclaimed Indian actress Shabana Azmi (Fire), Bentley Kalu (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Natasha Culzac (The Witcher) and Kate Kennedy (Catastrophe).
Halo comes from Showtime and 343 Industries, along with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin TV. Production launches later this year in Budapest for a 2021 premiere with Schreiber retaining his lead role as Master Chief Spartan John-117. As Showtime elucidates, McElhone take on the dual roles of both enigmatic, smart and conflicted Dr. Catherine Halsey – creator of the Spartan supersoldier program, and Cortana, the most advanced AI in human history, and potentially the key to the survival of the human race.
Woodbine joins in as Soren, a morally complex privateer at the fringes of human civilization whose fate will bring him into conflict with his former military masters and his old friend, the Master Chief. Azmi will play Admiral Margaret Parangosky, the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, while British actor Kalu (upcoming Vengeance 2) will play Spartan Vannak-134, a cybernetically augmented supersoldier conscripted at childhood who serves as the defacto deputy to the Master Chief.
British actress Culzac who next appears on Netflix series The Witcher soon with Henry Cavill, will play Spartan Riz-028—a focused, professional and deadly, cybernetically enhanced killing machine, while Kennedy will portray Spartan Kai-125, an all-new courageous, curious and deadly Spartan supersoldier. Previously announced Yerin Ha will play Kwan Ha, a shrewd, audacious 16-year-old from the Outer Colonies who meets Master Chief at a fateful time for them both.
It’s been eighteen years Halo launched and became a global phenomenon selling more than 77 million copies worldwide and grossing more than $60 billion in lifetime sales worldwide. The new program sets its story in a universe similar to the one introduced in 2001, dramatizing an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant – coupled with deeply drawn personal stories that will unfold with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.
Halo is executive produced by Steven Kane (The Last Ship) and Amblin TV’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey are exec producing in partnership with 343 Industries, director Otto Bathurst and Toby Leslie for One Big Picture and Kyle Killen and Scott Pennington for Chapter Eleven. CBS Studios will distribute the series internationally.