“Silver Timeline is a unique vision of the Halo universe”: Developers see a new direction for the storyline

With Halo’s upcoming television series set to finally get its first trailer in a few hours, fans of the game’s franchise are excited to find out just how well the show will be turning out.

While expectations towards the series are quite high, some community members are apprehensive that the show will not be following the game’s original timeline.

343 Industries opened up about some of the vision behind the Silver Timeline in the latest debrief to address some of these community concerns. Community writer Alex Wakeford and franchise development director Frank O’Connor explained why the story of the upcoming series will not compare to the game’s timeline in any way.

They comment that while both the universes will share characters and events, there will be stark differences. The story that complements the game and the player progression therein will not work the same way in a series.

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343 Industries explains why the Halo show will not follow the game timeline

O’Conner talks at great length about some of the creative team's decisions when it came to providing the series with a diverging storyline. In the debrief, he states,

“The Silver Timeline is a unique vision of the Halo universe that contains and embraces many key elements of the core canon that has spanned the last two decades, but with relevant contextual and narrative details that diverge in ways appropriate (and necessary) to the storytelling opportunities presented by the TV medium and our collaboration with creative partners.”

He elaborated further by saying,

“To tell the best Halo stories we can, we want to protect the integrity, simplicity, and future of the core canon, but also not be limited by it when faced with the realities of a new medium and the process of production. As a result, we made the decision to set the Halo television series in an authentic, but independent timeline.”

However, the storylines will not be "ever diverging," as O’Conner also goes on to suggest that there will be instances where the Silver Timeline will have crossovers with the Cannon Game story.

They might have separate timelines. But they are “connected by the same DNA and the intention is to keep making the two the best they can be, not to distract from, avoid, or ape each other.”

The Halo series’ new trailer will be released this Sunday, January 30, 2022, during the AFC Championship game. Franchise fans are definitely in for a treat this coming weekend.