“Not the Halo I made”: Co-creator of franchise unsure of live-action series’ inspiration

The live-action Halo series has been the source of controversy ever since its debut. With the first season of the show ending, Marcus Lehto, one of the co-creators of the franchise, has shared his thoughts.

The Halo series has been in the works for nearly a decade. From being originally announced by legendary director Steven Spielberg to finally debuting on Paramount+, the live-action adoption of one of the most iconic first-person shooter series has been interesting. However, the response hasn’t been as slam dunk positive as the showrunners hoped.

Recently, in response to a tweet asking about his thoughts on the show, Marcus Lehto said he is unsure of the series’ inspiration, and it is not the franchise he created. He elaborated by stating that he doesn’t necessarily mean the series is terrible but is somewhat confused by some of the creative choices that fall outside the core friction he helped create.

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Halo series leaves original franchise co-creator baffled with creative choices

Ever since its debut as the launch title for the original Xbox, the Halo series has become one of the most influential first-person shooter series that paved the way for FPS titles on consoles. The futuristic space saga follows John 117, aka Master Chief, a Spartan-II soldier through the war with the covenant.

From the original trilogy to the recent Infinite, the series has expanded beyond video games to books, comics, and, of course, live-action.

The live-action Halo series has received mixed responses throughout its first season and stayed a popular conversation topic across social media, not always in a good light.

While fans have praised the far and few between action scenes for being authentic and the CGI for being high quality, they have also torn down the series for some of its creative choices that blatantly disregard the lore and Master Chief’s characteristics.

Marcus Lehto, who worked at Bungie for more than a decade and a half (1996-2012), started as a freelance graphic designer and became a Creative Director. He contributed to the development of the Halo series before it was unveiled as an RTS title for the Apple Mac and has been part of the creative team throughout the original trilogy as well as ODST and Reach.

When a Twitter user asked about his thoughts on the series, he stated:

“Yeah, I’m not sure where the inspiration for the show comes from now. Not the Halo I made.”

He later clarified that he doesn’t necessarily hate the show, as seen below:

Marcus Lehto is currently a Game Director in Electronic Arts and is contributing his creative work to the Battlefield franchise, which has been facing a lot of criticism recently.

His thoughts are pretty similar to what most of the fandom has been stating. While the show does take inspiration from the series, it fails to translate the core lore and story correctly. With the show coming to an end, it is unsure if it will be renewed for a second season.

Despite being one of the most iconic franchises recently, the series has been going through some turmoil. Halo Infinite, the franchise’s latest iteration, has also faced criticism.

The core gameplay mechanics of the title are balanced and bring a satisfying physics-based arcade shooter experience. Paired with the free-to-play multiplayer option on both PC and console, it is an unbeatable offering.

However, the game misses some core series gameplay modes like Co-op Campaign and Forge, both set for future releases, and fails to retain the larger player base of the live series title.