Halo Star Pablo Schreiber Hated Season 1's Controversial Sex Scene
For those who may be unaware, allow me to fill you in on a little secret: Gamers can be a pretty, er, passionate bunch. With superhero movies on the downswing and Hollywood's ever-imaginative bean counters frantically searching for their latest holy grail, video game adaptations appear to be the next Big Thing on the horizon. That comes with all sorts of sky-high expectations — particularly when you're talking about one of the most beloved video game franchises ever made.
The somewhat hit-or-miss first season of "Halo" (to put it generously) often fell victim to that yawning gulf between expectations and reality. Bizarrely enough, the showrunners didn't bother adapting the events of the original game, "Combat Evolved," or even the hundreds of pages of material from the tie-in novels that detailed the origins of Master Chief and his cadre of super-soldiers. The story the Paramount+ series told instead was an oddball mix of head-scratching new material, repurposed imagery taken from random moments in the games, and barely any actual Halos in sight. That's not exactly a recipe for success, mind you, but on some level you just had to appreciate the bold choices made along the way. Okay, some of them, at least.
One of the biggest controversies of the season had to do with everyone's favorite Spartan (played by Pablo Schreiber) getting down and dirty with human prisoner-turned-mystic Makee (Charlie Murphy) in the penultimate episode. As fun as it might be to frame this as fanboys in basements losing their minds that their fictional fave got a little lucky for once, they weren't alone. None other than Schreiber himself is looking back at that out-of-left-field twist with quite a bit of — say it with me, folks — regret.
'A huge mistake'
Look, if Spartan-117 was ever going to hook up with someone, real ones know that it would've either been the Arbiter or (somehow) the artificial intelligence Cortana. That's about it when it comes to strong emotional attachments forged by a soldier raised from childhood as a killing machine. But "Halo" season 1 had other ideas, inventing the character of Makee and teasing her mysterious connections to the Master Chief. Those connections became somewhat more physical during one unexpected scene in episode 8 ... and fans more or less revolted en masse. We can count star Pablo Schreiber among them, apparently, as he explained in the latest issue of SFX Magazine:
"The decision to make the connection between Makee and John a romantic connection was a huge mistake. 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."
Of course, that was hardly the only moment of nudity in "Halo" that quickly got the internet's attention. An earlier episode took a big swing (pardon the pun) and bared John's bottom for the world to see. The moment was memorialized via the "Master Cheeks" meme, and executive producer Kiki Wolfkill is still answering for it:
"There are things like 'Master Cheeks' where I will say, admittedly, it was a blind spot for me how strong the reaction would be. At the end of the day, taking a risk like that again is more about, do we need it to support the story? At the end of the day, does 'Master Cheeks' need to happen again to support the story? Probably not. That's not the kind of risk that's worth taking."
The Master Chief unmasked
After more than a few instances of backlash, it's safe to say that the new creative team in charge of "Halo" season 2 will be a little more careful about major changes from established lore. (That said, remember that this show has been confirmed to take place in a separate timeline, apart from the games and other franchise media.) Yup, that means any and all dreams for "Halo" turning into an erotic thriller in space are now dead. I hope you're all happy.
Still, with one major fan complaint addressed, surely we can now expect the other to be given the same treatment, right? You know the one: "Halo" fans have been nothing but consistent in their ire about the Master Chief always removing his helmet throughout season 1 and even as early as the premiere episode. Schreiber was quick to throw his support behind that creative choice at the time and he's doubling down on it again. Speaking to SFX, the actor doesn't mince words one bit:
"People who don't feel the helmet was necessary to come off, they're at such an early conception of what the show could be. In order to fully explore the discrepancy between these two versions of the character [Chief and John-117], you can't tell that story without taking the helmet off. If you don't agree with the helmet coming off in the show, you don't like our show. So there's no point discussing it."
Hey, why are you all booing him? He's right! It's just so much easier to connect with an actor when you can see them emote, as much as Darth Vader or the Mandalorian are exceptions to the rule.
In any case, "Halo" season 2 premieres February 8, 2024, on Paramount+