The upcoming Halo TV series has officially been renewed for a second season. Paramount recently announced in celebration of its forthcoming one-year anniversary since launching the streaming service. The upcoming live-action TV adaptation of the iconic Xbox video game series is currently set to premiere next month. You can take a look at Paramount’s official announcement of Halo’s second season below.

This latest announcement for Halo comes just two weeks after the release of the show’s official trailer. With most of the previous promotional material over the past few months mainly focusing on Master Chief’s iconic helmet rather than his entire costume, the latest trailer finally gives fans a much better glimpse of what’s to come next month. The trailer also gives us a sample of the show’s version of Cortana, who is played by Jen Taylor, which is also the same voice actress from the video game series. If you haven’t already, you can check out the official trailer for upcoming Halo TV series below.

Everything We Know About Halo So Far

While the Halo universe continues to expand, it has unfortunately been confirmed that the television series timeline will not be canon to the video games. In a video posted to Twitter (via Halopedia), Executive Producer Kiki Wolfkill says the decision should be beneficial for both universes. “We’re referring to this as the Halo Silver Timeline as a way of differentiating it from core canon,” Wolfkill said. “In both protecting core canon and protecting the television story, and by that I mean being able to give ourselves the chance to evolve both and for both to be what they need to be for their medium without colliding with each other.”

Halo is an upcoming American live-action military science fiction television series based on the video game franchise of the same name. The current synopsis for the series reveals that it will follow “an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply imagined personal stories with action, adventure, and a richly imagined vision of the future. ”

The Halo series will star Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, Natascha McElhone as Dr. Catherine Halsey (a scientist for the UNSC, and creator of the Spartan-II Project), Yerin Ha as Kwan Ha, Charlie Murphy as Makee, Shabana Azmi as Admiral Margaret Parangosky (Director of ONI), Bokeem Woodbine as Soren-066, Olive Gray as Miranda Keyes, Kate Kennedy as Kai-125, Natasha Culzac as Riz-028, Bentley Kalu as Vannal-134, Danny Sapani as Captain Jacob Keyes, and Jen Taylor as Cortana (an artificial intelligence AI construct).

Halo will be available for streaming on Paramount+ on March 24. The upcoming television series will consist of a total of 9 episodes with roughly 50-60 minute runtimes. Currently, Halo has an estimated budget of $200 million, with episodes being directed by Otto Bathurst, Jonathan Liebesman, M.J. Bassett, Roel Reine, and Jet Wilkinson. While the announcement for the second season for Halo is still very fresh, there are currently no other details pertaining to the newest season at this time.

The final episode of The Book of Boba Fett saw audience numbers increase dramatically on those seen for The Mandalorian’s finale last year.

The Mandalorian set a high expectation for future Star Wars series on Disney+, and in some ways, The Book of Boba Fett suffered because of it. However, despite some believing the series lost its way in its last few episodes, seeming to be more interested in setting up the third season of The Mandalorian, the finale managed to pull in 40% more viewers than the final episode of Mando’s second season. While there can be many outside reasons for this, including increasing subscriber numbers and the show’s timing compared to The Mandalorian’s pre-Christmas finale, it can only bode well for the return of that series later this year.

As reported by Deadline, figures from Samba TV revealed that the final episode of The Book Of Boba Fett saw over 1.5 million U.S. households tuning in between the premiere last Wednesday and Sunday. This equated to a 36% increase on the last episode of The Mandalorian back in December 2020, which had 1.1 million households streaming the show and seeing the return of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.

Despite the series on series uplift, the show did suffer a drop in viewership compared to the opening episode. The series premiere pulled in 1.7 million households, which then dropped by 12% over the course of the show, but that is not unfamiliar for Disney+ with many Marvel live-action series seeing the same kind of decline. Overall though, for the first five days, the figures for The Book of Boba Fett will please Disney and LucasFilm and set up a big return for The Mandalorian soon.

The Book of Boba Fett Seemed to Lose Its Way in Its Final Episodes

Although The Book of Boba Fett was always unofficially called The Mandalorian Season 2.5, there were few people who expected the show to feature a full episode catching up with Din Djarin towards the end of the run, and by the time the finale aired, several critics suggested the show had plowed too deep into fan service.

Boba Fett has been a firm fan-favorite character since the original Star Wars trilogy, but his assumed death during Return of the Jedi seemed to have condemned the bounty hunter to join the likes of Jabba The Hutt as a character that would not be seen again in any great capacity. However, The Book of Boba Fett provided its subject an escape from death worthy of a 1940s cliffhanger serial and explained how Boba had been able to return to screens in the second season of The Mandalorian.

While all eyes will now return to the story of Din Djarin and The Child in the third season of The Mandalorian, which like its predecessors, is expected to arrive on Disney+ in November this year. Filming on the new series began in October 2021 and is thought to be nearing completion, which will then give Jon Favreau and his team a finite amount of time to complete the hefty amount of post-production work on the show. Robert Rodriguez says he has no problems talking up The Book of Boba Fett because it’s confident the Star Wars series will be pumped when they see it.

Firefly was canceled too soon. Released in 2002, the series took place in the year 2517. Classified as a space Western drama, the series saw the ensemble cast (lead by Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, and Alan Tudyk) traveling on the spaceship Serenity in search of new adventures.

It was an undoubtedly popular series, garnering up to 4.7 million viewers per episode. Astonishingly, however, Firefly was canceled before it finished its first season. Only 11 of the 14 planned episodes were released, leaving the dedicated fans of the show devastated. Petitions, fundraisers, and online forums were created in attempts to save the show from being canceled forever, but these efforts were ultimately in vain.

However, Disney plans to reboot the series as an exclusive for its streaming platform Disney+. Disney had acquired the rights to the franchise after their 2018 acquisition of Fox. Firefly seems like the perfect option to diversify their current line-up for streaming. Here’s what to expect from the reboot.

Updated February 14, 2022, by Will Sayre: If you’re looking for more information regarding who’s involved in the potential Firefly reboot, you’ll be happy to know that we’ve updated this article with more details.

New revelations recently surfaced about Joss Whedon’s past behavior on set of the original series, specifically involving a writer who then came forward anonymously in an interview.

The Rebooted Firefly Will Have a New Story

The original Firefly series on Fox was intended for mature audiences. Inara, for example, is explicitly known to be a courtesan on the show. There are also political, social, and economic factors that interrogate the morals and ethics of the characters’ world and society. Disney has not confirmed anything about the plot, but there is speculation on how the story will differ. Some routes include picking up right where the series left off and delving into the past of Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) who fought in the civil war against the Alliance. However, it is most likely that Disney will restart the entire series on a more family-friendly note. While Disney achieved a new “first” in Eternals by featuring the first openly gay character and first real sex scene, it’s unlikely that Firefly will do the same. Instead, they might opt for a narrative that would appeal to a more general audience on its streaming platform.

Related: Here’s How Chloe Zhao Went From Indie Director to Oscar-Winning MCU Mastermind in 6 Years

Joss Whedon Will Not Be Involved

Since Firefly was his vision and dream, many wondered whether Joss Whedon would return for the reboot. While Whedon isn’t a stranger to creating television properties — Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a much-beloved series to this day — it seems that the allegations of workplace harassment against him might be the reason he won’t be returning. Indeed, WarnerMedia conducted an investigation, resulting in swift action from the studio. Whedon then exited the HBO Max series The Nevers, and it’s safe to assume that producers, especially Disney, are cautious about working with him. He has not directed any television shows or movies since leaving The Nevers.

In January 2022, an interview was shared on Vulture featuring an anonymous writer who worked on Firefly, recalling a time when Whedon belittled another writer in front of several staff members. According to the writer, Whedon felt the script presented to him wasn’t up to par, and rather than addressing this with the writer privately, Whedon brought together the entire writing staff.

“It was basically 90 minutes of vicious mockery,” the writer said. “Joss pretended to have a slide projector, and he read her dialogue out loud and pretended he was giving a lecture on terrible writing as he went through the ‘slides’ and made funny voices — funny for him. The guys were looking down at their pages, and this woman was fighting tears the entire time. I’ve had my share of shitty showrunners, but the intent to hurt — that’s the thing that stands out for me now.”

More Details Are Coming

Disney has largely kept quiet about the Firefly reboot, but they are planning to create the series. Because of the lack of official information, a release date, cast, and specific details haven’t been confirmed. There are several routes that Disney could spin the plot, and while it is unlikely that the original cast will reprise their roles, perhaps there’s a chance that some actors could make a guest appearance.

Firefly has a dedicated fanbase, one that might not be too pleased if Disney changes the tone and plot to be more accessible for younger audiences. However, with Whedon no longer being a part of the decisions, it seems highly unlikely that this will be a continuation of the original story. That said, with the current slate of successful original shows that Disney+ has created so far, there’s hope that the original magic created in 2002 will translate after all this time.

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