Microsoft’s blockbuster Halo franchise has generated over$81 million in sales since Halo Combat Evolvedlaunched on the originalXbox on July 14, 2025. Fans of the series have waited an excess of 20 years to seelive-action Master Chiefkick some Covenant booty on Halo. Time, it would seem, has not been kind to the oncesavior of the galaxy. At one point in history, Halo anddeveloper Bungie Studioswere responsible for a shift in the entire entertainment industry withHalo 3as it generated over$300 million in its first week.
On its first day, a video game would beat out a multi-million dollar feature-length film,Spider-Man 3.Halo and thevideo game industry would never be the same again. Today, Halo occupies a much different residency in the video games industry than it did well over a decade ago. Whilemillions of viewerstuned in to theParamount+ exclusive Halo TV series, Master Chief’s television debut leftmuch to be desired. From new characters, events in the Halo timeline, andcannon just seemingly tossed to the winds, 343i has made it very clear, that the Halo TV series does not follow the canon of the iconic video games. Join us as we uncover the biggest differences between Halo and the Halo TV Series.
~~~ Spoilers for the Halo TV Series Below ~~~
10/10 The Helmet
One of the more polarizing aspects of the Halo TV series is seeing theChief without his iconic MJOLNIR armor on, more specifically his helmet. Paramount+ chose to unceremoniously depict the Halo TV Chief sans his Mark VI helmet in an attempt to humanize their interpretation of theMaster Chief. Don’t worry, we will get there.
Chief without his helmet is less of a dealbreaker because it happens early on, and he is without it so frequently. After a while, however, it becomes easier toappreciate the Halo TV show more as a solid Sci-Fi action series, rather than a by-the-numbers in-cannon Halo story.
9/10 Dr. Catherine Halsey
The creator of not only theSPARTAN program and MJOLNIR power armorbut also the literal brilliant mind that birthed Cortana,Dr. Catherine Halsey’s character remains largely untouchedin the Halo TV series. The one main difference between this universe Halsey and the Halo cannon version is that the Halo TVHalsey gets in trouble with the UNSC way sooner.
By this point in the Halo timeline, Dr. Halsey holds extraordinary guilt for her and Captain Keyes’s involvement in theabduction of children for her SPARTAN-II program. Replacement children wereflash-clonedand swapped with children they kidnapedto genetically modify and create Spartans.Eventually, the cloned children died within months from genetic disorders due to their organs genetically breaking apart. In the Halo canon, Dr. Halsey personally keeps tabs on all the child clones until the year 2525.
8/10 Chief’s Love Interest
In the Halo cannon, the Master Chief wasgenetically enhanced and vigorously trainedsince childhood to be a compliant super-soldier and tocomplete the mission no matter the cost. In the first season of the Halo TV series after John-117 comes into contact with the mysterious alien artifact, he removes hisemotion regulatorthat is supposedly suppressing his natural human emotional responses. Thus allowing him to have deal with his emotions rather than suppressing them. One of these emotions Paramount+ wants you to know John is capable of is love.
In the Halo TV series, Makee, a human who has sided with the Covenant, gets intentionally captured by the UNSC which subsequently leads to an emotional relationship between her and John. While also a direct violation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003, John’s love interest seems ham-fisted and a sign that 343i and Microsoft were probably comfortable distancing themselves from the Halo cannon after reading the script.
7/10 Silver Team
Halo’s iconic Blue Team takes a back seat for the Halo TV series Silver Team, and that is probably for the best considering where the first season ends. Blue Tea members Frederic-104 Assault, Keely-087 Scout, and Linda-058 Marksman, are all seemingly absent from the Halo TV show and have been replaced by Silver Team’s Kai-125, Vannak-134, and Riz-028.
Of John-117’s new squad mates, Kai-125 is the most interesting new addition to Halo. Kai recognizes John hasn’t been himself most season and while spying on him, she gets the idea to also remove her emotional inhibitor. She also embarks on her adventure in the background trying to deal with her newly unregulated emotions.
6/10 Soren
Spartan-066, orSoren,is a Spartan II dropout and eventual AWOL soldier in Halo canon. Soren had spent a significant amount of time with The Master Chief and the other recruits while they were in the middle of training and more importantly,undergoing genetic modification. Soren did not take well to the biological enhancements and eventually fled the SPARTAN training facility in the dead of night, but not before stealing his MJOLNIR power armor.
The last time Halo fans heard from Soren he was hiding in the woodsnear the site of a crashed training Pelican ship. Paramount+ had more or less a clean slate when developing the character Soren, who at this point would be as old as John. Soren is reduced to an insurrection leader in a hideout along an asteroid belt, oftentaking more than he gives to his people.
5/10 Master Chief Dies
The Halo TV series eventually ends with Cortana strategically killing John-117 in a seemingly last-ditch attempt to savehim and his team from certain death.
Cortana takes control of the MJOLNIR power suitwhile the chief is dead, and it is never fully explained if he is ever revived in the suit post-combat. To be clear, Halo Cannon Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 is alive and well currentlygrappling over mountains on Zeta Halo.
4/10 Kwan Ha
Outer colonies, civil wars, and insurrectionistshave always existed in the Halo lore, Paramount+ introduces Kwan Ha to the series as an insurrectionist rebel against the UNSC. Both of Kwan Ha’s parents were killed by the UNSC, and she witnessed her mother’s assassination byMaster Chief Petty Officer John-117.
Kwan Ha and Soren take up a lot of screen time that never leads to anything significant. The character Kwan Haseems like busy workfor Soren who the creators may have had a unique time trying to lock down as a meaningful character.
3/10 Makee
Abducted by theCovenantas a child, Makee is a new character in the Halo franchise and is sympathetic to her captors' belief in theGreat Journey. Makee, having nothing but contempt for humanity, alsopossess a giftvery important to the Covenant. Makee is inexplicably able, like John, tointeract with the mysterious alien artifactfound in the first episode of the show.
The alien artifact turns out to be a map with coordinates to a mysterious ring world, the site of the Covenant’s Great Journey. Makee does not exist as a conduit to Installation-04 in the Halo canon. Both the Covenant and UNSC found Halo by complete chance. Her inclusion in the Halo TV seriesopens up far more questions than it closes.
2/10 Cortana
Cortanaand Master Chief are as pseudonymous as… well the Master Chief and Halo. Cortana, in the Halo cannon, is aSmart AI combat advisorthat was created bymapping Dr. Catherine Halsey’s brainand using that architecture to bring Cortana to life. Cortana and The Master Chief save the universe together during the height of the Covenant-Human war. Halo TV Cortana seems to be presented as theworld’s first Smart AI, made from a cloned version of Dr. Halsey’s brain. Her mission is more of a control function than a combat advisor in the TV series.
In Halo,Smart AI’s aren’t common because they are costly to engineer, but they are very much present. Smart AI’s are capable of many more computation processes than traditional AI, allowing them to think and make decisions that are more human than robot.Smart AI’s typically have a 7-year lifespan,after which they slip into what is known as AI Rampancy. AI Rampancy eventually leads to the death of the AI as its process becomes locked in a never-ending loop,effectively thinking itself to death.
1/10 Halo?
For a show that has the wordHalo in the title, you’d think we would see more of the deadly planetary Eden with itslush landscapes and intimidating alien structures. Probably the most egregious and baffling difference in the first season of the Halo TV series is the near absolute absence of the ringworld known as Halo.
For comparison, the Halo ringworldshows up 25 seconds into the first cinematicin Halo Combat Evolved, and you are laying waste to covenant scum on the planetin the second mission.
