The Halo video game franchise has always maintained certain rules over the decades. For example, its most popular character, Master Chief, is known for never removing his helmet or armor. While many fans expected the same rules to be followed in the newly-released live-action Halo series on Paramount Plus, this hasn’t been the case. In fact, the creators of the series have specifically gone against those rules. Master Chief, played by Pablo Schreiber in the series, not only removes his helmet – but goes completely nude in the latest episode.
This is no doubt shocking for longtime fans of the video game franchise, especially since part of Master Chief’s appeal is the fact no one knew what he looked like. The character had a massive aura of mystery about him that kept gamers not only engaged, but able to more closely relate with him. Of course, for the television series, it was deemed more appropriate for audiences to see the character’s face and now nude body in order to relate to Master Chief.
Now, as you can see below, via Decider, the third episode of Halo unveils a fully nude Master Chief:
It’s worth noting that the sequence is more symbolic than sexual. The character is forced to remove an emotional inhibitor with the guidance of Cortana, and it clearly symbolizes the character being stripped of his armor both physically and emotionally. Of course, that doesn’t make it any less of a jarring surprise for fans who’ve become used to Master Chief being armored and helmeted since his first appearance decades ago. And considering the series is still in its early stages, it’s possible that we’ll be seeing even more changes with Master Chief as the show goes on. Hopefully they won’t upset fans too much if there are any other drastic changes.
The live-action Halo series is currently available to stream via Paramount Plus.