Why Halo was canceled – How it failed to compete with Fallout and The Last of Us
Paramount/Prime VideoIf you’re wondering why the Halo series was canceled, look no further than the game adaptation’s strange creative choices, streaming platform, and staunch TV competition in the 2020s.
The Last of Us, Fallout, Arcane Season 2… it’s not an easy time to be a passable show based on a popular game. It used to be that you could get away with just being ‘fine’ – audiences were used to that.
If Paramount+ had released Halo in 2010, it would have met a warmer reception. But competition inspires quality, and it was fighting 1v1 with some of the finest TV shows streaming right now.
It’s no surprise Halo was blown out of the water, due to viewership and a lack of passionate fans, because the TV landscape it failed to survive in has ushered in the golden era of gaming adaptations.
Why was Halo canceled?
Paramount+ has not stated why it was axed. However, Halo failed to win over game fans, had a tepid critical reception, and was overshadowed by other adaptations.
Months after Halo Season 2 premiered in February 2024, 343 Industries said, “We deeply appreciate the millions of fans who propelled the Halo series to be a global success and we remain committed to broadening the Halo universe in different ways in the future.”
343 is reportedly shopping the series around, hoping to keep its heart beating.
Interestingly, streaming numbers alone don’t seem responsible for its demise. It could have been a mix of the challenging environment in current TV, expectations, and the missed goal of connecting with the game audience.
Exceptional game adaptations buried Halo
There’s no one correct way to adapt a game, but Arcane, Fallout, and The Last of Us set a bar Halo couldn’t reach.
The notion you must adhere to lore, bow down to source material, and not irritate fans with detours is false. Some series, like HBO’s The Last of Us, work well because they are faithful, almost shot-for-shot adaptations. Meanwhile, others like Arcane go in their own direction and are better for it.
The trouble for Halo was that it had to compete with masterpieces. If you wanted a show that created a new canon using visual and worldbuilding cues from a game, you’d watch Arcane.
If you wanted ‘Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at TV’ meme moments, you likely tuned into TLOU every week to be emotionally traumatized by characters that started making you weep a decade ago.
He just saw Joel shoot a familiar surgeon in the Season 1 finale, changing the trajectory of our lives forever.There’s not a large array of game adaptations on TV right now, admittedly. However, the ones that people are talking about suck all the oxygen out of the room.
In comparison, viewers perceived Halo as lackluster, disconnected from its core audience, and uninspired.
Viewership
Halo’s viewership was strong, but it wasn’t a conversation starter like similar shows. According to Deadline, it even set a premiere viewership record for Paramount+.
“Bringing Halo to life as a streaming series has been one of the most rewarding efforts for Paramount+ to date and we could not be more thrilled at the massive fan response to the series’ debut,” said Tanya Giles, Chief Programming Officer at Paramount+.
Showrunners listened to Season 1 feedback and returned with a better Season 2, but the show never became event TV like The Last of Us or blew people’s minds like Arcane.
Paramount+ also has a much smaller pool of potential viewers than streaming services like Netflix or Disney+. A record-breaker on the former might not make any noise on the latter.
Crucially, the standards set for renewals across the board have gone up. Shows that perform well aren’t bulletproof, critical darlings can’t survive on the merit of their Rotten Tomatoes scores, and the days of probable 5+ season runs (you typically have to pay everyone more after 3) are gone.
The ideal trifecta: strong viewership, positive critical reception, and social buzz. Think Stranger Things Season 4; it doesn’t get much better than that if you’re in Netflix’s board room.
Halo had one of those things, people were tuning in. Although, Paramount+ doesn’t release figures week-on-week so it’s hard to confirm that the impressive debut had legs.
Creative choices
The Halo series turned off many people in its core audience with some of its creative decisions.
Dexerto’s the Halo series deserved better write-up says, “I barely managed to get through that TV show and to be completely honest, only did so out of love and respect for the games. If I was a casual viewer hoping for some great action and Sci-fi storytelling, I would have switched off after the first episode.”
One of the main gripes was Master Chief’s helmet. Like Star Wars’ The Mandalorian, conveying the man behind the mask’s emotions with his face covered is challenging. So, the show had him whip it off a few times à la Pedro Pascal.
This is a layered issue that involves actor exposure (What performer looking to make it big wants their entire body covered?), pre-existing canon, and the age-old discourse of ‘Does it really, actually, in fact, matter?” In this case, it did matter to many people who have loved the source material for years.
Halo didn’t stick to lore enough to please die-hards, nor did it deviate in a way inspiring sufficient to make originality advantageous.
If you enjoyed the series, hopefully it has plenty of rewatch value.
Time to pivot, though. Here’s what we know about The Last of Us Season 2, the Horizon Zero Dawn series, and Fallout Season 2.