During the Halo: Nightfall presentation at Comic-Con, 343 Industries and Scott Free Productions revealed the first teaser for the upcoming, feature-length series. Nightfall stars Christina Chong and Mike Colter were there too – fresh from the shoot in Iceland – to talk about the experience of expanding the Halo universe and bridging the franchise into next year’s Halo 5: Guardians.
I’ll get to the teaser in a second, but the big reveal is that Agent Locke (Colter) will be a playable character in Halo 5. So there’s that. I was right.
Ridley Scott provided a video introduction to the footage, thanking the crowd for showing up and offering his compliments to the series’ production team for bringing the Halo universe to life. Scott joked that he wasn’t much of a gamer, but that he’d seen many elements from his films cribbed by games.
The short-ish teaser reveals the threat, which is some kind of element which can “selectively kill humans,” leading Agent Locke and members of the UNSC to trace its source and deal with some of them halos.
343 Industries’ Kiki Wolfkill set the clip up, explaining that Nightfall was a more intimate story than fans might be used to. Frank O’Connor, Creative Director for the franchise elaborated on the storyline, explaining that Nightfall would take place across two very distinct locations – the first, at a neglected colony on the outskirts of the galaxy; the other is a fragment of a Halo ring which was separated from the main body of the installation after a failed slipspace jump.
Producer David Zucker talked about casting Nightfall, saying that the team had to find taller actors for the roles in the digital series. He joked about looking for taller actors, which points to Agent Locke likely ending up in some SPARTAN (or SPARTAN-like) armor (those guys are huge).
Colter talked about his role in Nightfall, saying that he “really gelled with [Locke’s] point of view.” He described Nightfall as an origin story for his character. O’Connor added that Nightfall added that it’s like the origin of a superhero, with Locke being “more than an All-American” character who’ll be explored throughout the digital series. Colter is currently recording VO for Nightfall.
Chong, who appeared most recently in the latest season of 24, plays Macer. Macer is an ambitious member of the UNSC who desperately wants to prove herself, according to Chong.
We got a look at stills from the colony where Nightfall is set – O’Connor described it as a largely agrarian community abandoned by Earth in the wake of the war. The two things it has going for it, added O’Connor, are some dedicated soldiers and a few secrets. He also teased that the Halo ring would be a character in and of itself, a potentially sinister environment which is a threat to Agent Locke and the other characters.
O’Connor teased a new vehicle in the Halo universe, the Condor, a smaller, slipspace-enabled vehicle which will make its debut in Nightfall. So that should be interesting to check out.
Halo: Nightfall will be released on November 11 alongside The Master Chief collection, as well as on Xbox LIVE.