JUST GETTING STARTED

WITH THE COVENANT IN HALO-BUT FIRST HE NEEDS TO DEAL WITH A FEW ONLINE TROLLS...

- JACK SHEPHERD

MASTER CHIEF’S BATTLE-HARDENED, straight-talking persona must be wearing off on Pablo Schreiber, because the actor – who plays the iconic Spartan warrior in Paramount’s Halo series – does not mince words. For instance, when asked about the first season’s infamous sex scene between Chief, aka John-177, and the undercover Covenant agent Makee, he firmly criticises the narrative decision.

“The decision to make the connection between Makee and John a romantic connection was a huge mistake,” he tells SFX. “I felt it was a huge mistake at the time and I argued against it and fought against it. But I am who I am. I don’t write the scripts. I only give my opinion. It wasn’t listened to.”

He similarly makes his feelings known about fans who were angered when, during the pilot episode, Chief removed his helmet – something that’s never happened in the Halo game series, despite there being six mainline entries.

“People who don’t feel the helmet was necessary to come off, they’re at such an early conception of what the show could be,” he says. “In order to examine the discrepancy between these two versions of the character [Chief and John-117], you can’t tell that story without taking the helmet off. If you don’t agree with the helmet coming off in the show, you don’t like our show. So there’s no point discussing it.”