Episode 3 of Halo premieres later this week on Paramount+, and all signs point to the show being one of the biggest hits for the streaming platform to date. Based on the long-running series of bestselling video games, Halo tells the story of an intergalactic struggle between humanity and a hostile alien collective known as the Covenant. At its center is the Master Chief, an armored super soldier who stands in for the player in the games, but is receiving a lot more development on the show. Ably played by Pablo Schrieber, the story focuses on peeling back the layers of Master Chief’s humanity.
Halo has broken with the games in a way major way by having the Chief remove his signature helmet. Paramount+ let fans know ahead of time this was going to happen, which meant that even before the show aired, there were plenty of people griping about how the Chief removing his helmet meant the show was going to be bad.
Taking to Instagram earlier this week, Schrieber addressed the backlash from “fans” who hadn’t even seen the show yet, and also thanked all those who have been supporting it.
Pablo Schrieber calls out Halo haters who haven’t watched the show
“Huge thanks to everyone who has supported our show,” the actor wrote in his post. “To all the fans who have been waiting for this moment for so long and to the newcomers who have responded with such overwhelming support and love, I am honored and humbled to be in service to this amazing universe and lore…”
For all the “fans” rooting against the home team, who hated the show before they saw it and disagree with what we are doing, I respect your opinion and I love you too. Because the truth is, we love the same thing. And I will keep working my ass off each and every day to make this show the best version of itself, to bring attention and respect to this [Halo] universe we love.
While calling out fans can be a tricky business that has gotten more than one actor in trouble over the years, Schrieber handled things pretty gracefully here. Halo isn’t the first show to be review bombed on platforms like IMDb for somewhat spurious reasons. Just last week Moon Knight received a glut of negative reviews from fans not because it was a bad show but because it mentioned the Armenian Genocide, which is a politically hot button issue in parts of the world.
Whether you like Halo, hate Halo, or just plain don’t care about it, it’s a pretty fair statement that in order to weigh in on it with any sort of credibility, you kind of have to watch it. One point for the Master Chief.
Halo was the second most streamed piece of entertainment its release week
Schrieber also detailed how well the show has done for Paramount+. “We were the second most streamed piece of entertainment in the US last week behind Oscar’s Best Picture winner [CODA] and the most streamed in Canada!” he wrote. “With many more territories coming to [Paramount+] soon, [Halo] is now officially a huge hit, and soon to be a worldwide phenomenon!” the actor wrote.”
My immediate gut instinct is to say hey, congratulations to Halo! If it ranked second in the U.S., it would mean that this show is well on its way to becoming Paramount+’s most successful show ever. It also likely means that it cracked the top 10 on the Nielson charts, which would be a first for the platform. And it would mean that viewership for Halo beat Moon Knight the week that show debuted on Disney+, which would be an incredible win for Paramount.
Unfortunately, streaming numbers continue to be murky and hard to parse from the outside. The numbers for Episode 2 have not been released to the public yet, which means that we kind of just have Schrieber’s word for it. Still, it sounds like Halo is doing great things for Paramount+, and that’s awesome.
Episode 3 of Halo premieres on Paramount+ this Thursday.
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