Halo TV series casts its Master Chief: Pablo Schreiber

The long-coming live-action Halo series from Showtime has finally found its Master Chief. Pablo Schreiber — who is already a genre favorite, playing Mad Sweeney on Starz’ American Gods — will be donning the iconic green armor and yellow reflective visor of John-117.

The enhanced supersolider is one of the most recognizable video game characters of the 2000s, when the original Halo game launched with the Xbox. Chief’s future-set battle against the alien Covenant and Flood is intense, which makes the man of few words just as intimidating. Fans never see the character’s face over the course of the franchise, which could change now that a recognizable star has been cast.

The show currently has a nine-episode order coming from director Otto Bathurst and writer Kyle Killen (who’s also co-showrunning with Steven Kane), and there’s already one major change from the story fans know on the horizon. The release also mentions that a brand new character will be introduced into the story: the teenage Quan Ah. Played by newcomer Yerin Ha, Quan is a 16-year-old from the rebellion-strewn Outer Colonies of humanity “who meets Master Chief at a fateful time for them both.”

While that mysterious statement doesn’t spill too much for fans, many of the Outer Colonies were “glassed” (had its entire ecosystem ruined via plasma blasts) during the Human-Covenant War. If Chief is around, perhaps he’s trying to stop this from happening to a particular human settlement.

Halo begins production this fall in Budapest.