Six Additional Cast Hired For 'Halo,' Showtime's Series Based On Xbox Franchise

Showtime announced additional casting of Natascha McElhone, Bokeem Woodbine, Shabana Azmi, Bentley Kalu, Natasha Culzac and Kate Kennedy for Halo, the anticipated series based on the Xbox video game franchise during their presentation at the TCA summer press tour. Produced by Showtime in partnership with 343 Industries, along with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television, the series will begin production later this year in Budapest and is slated to air in the first quarter of 2021.

McElhone will star in dual roles as both Dr. Catherine Halsey, the brilliant, conflicted and inscrutable creator of the Spartan supersoldiers and Cortana, the most advanced AI in human history, and potentially the key to the survival of the human race.

Woodbine will play Soren-066, a morally complex privateer at the fringes of human civilization whose fate will bring him into conflict with his former military masters and his old friend, the Master Chief.

Azmi will play Admiral Margaret Parangosky, the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Three new characters will be introduced to the series as Kalu will play Spartan Vannak-134, a cybernetically augmented supersoldier conscripted at childhood who serves as the defacto deputy to the Master Chief. Culzac will star in the role of Spartan Riz-028 – a focused, professional and deadly, cybernetically enhanced killing machine. Kennedy stars as Spartan Kai-125, an all-new courageous, curious and deadly Spartan supersoldier. Yerin Ha was previously announced playing the new character Kwan Ha, a shrewd, audacious 16-year-old from the Outer Colonies who meets Master Chief at a fateful time for them both.

The series is executive produced by Steven Kane, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey for Amblin Television in partnership with 343 Industries, director Otto Bathurst and Toby Leslie for One Big Picture and Kyle Killen and Scott Pennington for Chapter Eleven. CBS Studios International will distribute globally.

Source: Deadline