The upcoming live-action adaptation of Halo for the small screen has officially cast its Cortana.
If you’re not familiar with Cortana, she’s the AI sort-of-love-interest in the Halo series, and was originally voiced by actor Jen Taylor.

For the television adaptation, the role of Cortana has gone to Natascha McElhone, who you might recognise from shows like Ronin, Designated Survivor and Californication.
McElhone will play both Cortana and Dr. Catherine Halsey, who created Spartan supersoliders like the iconic Master Chief.

Although not too much is known about the series as of yet, we do know that Soren-066 will be played by Bokeem Woodbine of Fargo fame, and Shabana Azmi will be taking the role of Admiral Margaret Parangosky, head of the Office of Naval Intelligence.
Avengers: Age of Ultron‘s Bentley Kalu, Netflix’s The Witcher‘s Natasha Culzac and Catastrophe‘s Kate Kennedy are also signed up for the Showtime series. The trio will be playing Spartans, members of a series of United Nations Space Command projects.

As for the one and only Master Chief…well, we might be seeing him in a whole new light thanks to the show.
Speaking with Deadline, Showtime’s Gary Levine was asked if we’d be seeing a Master Chief without the mask in the series, to which he slyly responded “we’ll have to wait and see.”
The cryptic response has led to fans of the game speculating that we might get to see a more human side to the iconic character, or at least, we’ll see him with less headgear than we’re typically used to.

As of yet there’s no solid release date in place for Showtime’s Halo television series, but it’s expected to be coming in April 2021. Take your time, Showtime!
Will you be tuning in?
Featured Image Credit: 343 Industries