Comic-Con 2011 Live Schedule

Halo Legends Panel Recap

Frank O'Connor lets Comic-Con attendees in on a few interesting facts about Halo's upcoming anime series.

The original description for the Halo panel at this year’s Comic-Con went like this: “Frank O'Connor (franchise development director for Halo) will be joined by a number of special guests to discuss how Halo is evolving into a robust entertainment franchise and what's coming in the future.” As you can tell, they were coy about today’s big reveal of Halo Legends, the upcoming series of anime films set in the Halo universe. With that news officially broken this morning, Frank O’Connor and friends took some time to explain a little bit more about Legends this afternoon.

Who Was There: On the panel were Frank O’Connor, head of 343 Industries (the newly formed all-things-Halo division of Microsoft), Halo Legends managing editor Kevin Grace and producer Joseph Cho, as well as a handful of representatives from the various Japanese animation companies involved in the project.

Frank O'Conner and team talk Halo Legends.

What They Talked About: Initially, not very much. O’Connor started with a general overview of the project, explaining that the decision to expand Halo into animated features wasn’t a “marketing push,” but rather a desire to explore more of the fiction that's possible in the game. Of all the media they could do that with, they settled on anime because of the humanizing element that particular art form brings. After that, the animation studio reps went on to talk about what big fans of the series they are and how excited they are to work on Legends. Yes, it was all very safe and friendly stuff that didn’t shed any more light on the project than what was revealed earlier today.

However, once it came time for audience questions, we got to see hear interesting tidbits. Here’s a rundown of some of the more interesting responses: Legends will explore the stories of many other Spartan soldiers besides Master Chief, including at least one female Spartan. They haven’t finished casting yet, which is why they haven’t talked about actors involved. Sergeant Johnson won’t be featured in any significant way. At least one episode will delve very deeply into the history of the Covenant. A lot of the settings in the anime are directly inspired by the multiplayer maps in the series. The episode by Casio Entertainment will be purely CG rather than hand drawn. Every episode will be considered canon except for Toei’s, which O’Connor said "are fun" rather than official fiction.

Best Audience Question: One guest asked whether the story from I Love Bees would be considered in the establishment of this fiction. O’Connor answered “absolutely.” Talk about remembering your Halo history!

Worst Audience Question: Another guest asked whether the anime would unlock Halo 3 recon armor. O’Connor told him there was some under his chair.

The Takeaway: All the big details are still very much under wraps at the moment, but what they showed of Halo Legends--including the debut teaser trailer--looked very interesting. It’s clear Microsoft is ramping up the establishment of Halo as a full-fledged entertainment universe that stands on its own apart from Bungie’s games. We’re eager to see where it goes from here.

35 Comments

  • halorocks123

    Posted Sep 4, 2009 9:06 am GMT

    i hope ithas good graphics and action.

  • Furanko_Kun

    Posted Jul 27, 2009 5:54 am GMT

    Wow some people are complaining about anime and Halo being in the same pod. xD
    I don't think they know that Street Fighter, FFVII (And the FF universe in general), Devil May Cry, and other game franchises have gone in the same pod with anime and didn't stink. Most recently was Devil May Cry (I think). So pipe down you limeys and let other people enjoy this.
    xD Idiots.

  • necorid

    Posted Jul 26, 2009 3:34 pm GMT

    @NightRaVeN75

    i agree. eric nylund is the best halo scribe. Ghosts of onyx was great and Kurt is my favorite character from the halo universe. Oh BTW Marvel is doing a halo comic book

  • NightRaVeN75

    Posted Jul 25, 2009 4:58 am GMT

    Halo Legends sounds cool, with something like Halo being made by a lot of great animators...It will be as action packed as Dragon Ball, Z and GT...I will watch the CG series, and the hand drawn one, especially since I read 3 of the books so far, currently reading ghosts of onyx, this will be interesting to see what spartans they talk about, to see Fred, Linda, Kelly, Sam, Kurt, Joshua, and so on

  • TrojanLB48

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 8:37 pm GMT

    God...I never even dreamed this would happen...

  • Vanshluuugnheim

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 2:32 pm GMT

    LOLS at Everyone who thinks its a movie. People need to Read. Its a Short Series. Probably Straight to dvd. Still. Anything Halo Rocks!!!

  • HydraRizlim

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 2:20 pm GMT

    Why?! WHY?! and again WHY!!!!!!!!? leave halo alone!

  • Smash696

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 1:49 pm GMT

    ......

    Oh

    My

    God.

    Why? WHY? What in the world are they thinking? Anime and halo? Whoever the driving force behind this idea is, he's a retard

  • Barighm

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 12:52 pm GMT

    @shanzor

    To be fair, a lot of those FF games feature original storylines. Milking the FF name yes, but they do release some good new stuff under that name. Well, at least they used to. These days...very blah.

  • LGTX

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 12:44 pm GMT

    Read the books, played the second game... as a story, the franchise has some potential. Not sure about these Legends though. Casio's 3D version might be worth checking out, but I'm not sure if cartoons will show the Halo universe from the bright side.

  • Krud

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 12:32 pm GMT

    Whhhyyyyy the hell would they do this. Jeez microsoft just stick with the books. Master Chief shouldnt be subjected to a highly improbable eye size, hair that defies gravity, and dancing turnips. Man, Frankie O, if you keep accepting things like this to be developed for the Halo series, parts of it are going to do for Halo what the prequel trilogy did for Star Wars.

  • PlzDuntBanMe

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 12:17 pm GMT

    Stupid PS3 fanboys rating every good comment a thumbs down

  • strawberryheart

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 11:26 am GMT

    I am pumped, they have some good talent behind them and a good "simple" story to follow. Can't wait. Only thing that would make me more happy is if Gainax was some how involved.......

  • gsnmaster

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 11:13 am GMT

    Putting Anime fans and Halo fans together? Oh, dear God...

  • shanzor

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 10:55 am GMT

    I like how everyone likes to say how this is milking a franchise when Final Fantasy is getting ready to release their 29th and 30th games.

  • RealKilla_789 Site Greeter

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 10:03 am GMT

    cool

  • raimgamer

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 8:59 am GMT

    Looks really awesome, sad someone I know, Nny3, hates it, and he is a great Halo fan.

  • jrabbit99

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 8:36 am GMT

    I can't wait to buy it!

  • thegamerguy7

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 8:17 am GMT

    halo, movie, it will rise over the titanic in the box office

  • Jhraxlin

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 7:59 am GMT

    Halo + anime. The apocalypse is nigh...