Master Chief (Halo)

When game studio Bungie began developing Halo: Combat Evolved (2001), the design of Master Chief was led by art director Marcus Lehto with support from artist Robert McLees. Shi Kai Wang was later hired as a concept artist, who created a sketch that became the basis for Master Chief.[1] When the sketch was translated into a three-dimensional model, the team felt that it looked too slim and anime-inspired,[1] and Lehto asked for a bulkier character design that felt more like a walking tank.[2] The Chief's armor went through various changes, such as green tint, and the addition (and later removal) of an antenna.[3] The character's two-prong visor, intended to convey speed and agility, was inspired by BMX helmets.[4]

For much of the game's development, the character had no name.[5] The Chief was always intended to be a soldier in a difficult war,[5] and the team first referred to him as the "Future Soldier" or "The Cyborg".[6][7] Eric Nylund established the character's birth name as "John" in the tie-novel Halo: The Fall of Reach, but Bungie preferred to avoid using this in the game.[6] Looking to military ranks for inspiration,[6] the developers were attracted to naval ranks as "different" from other game characters.[8] McLees, insisting on accuracy, wanted to make sure the character still had a plausible rank for his role. "Master Chief" was the highest non-commissioned rank where the character would still be considered "expendable".[6] McLees also felt the shortened "Chief" sounded more colloquial and less like a modern military designation.[7] Though "Master Chief" was intended to be a placeholder, and drew some internal disagreement, the name ended up sticking.[6][8]

Halo was considered a success.[9] Story writer Joseph Staten recalled that early on in Halo's development, they had not considered how to engage players in the world, and Master Chief's character was what drew people in.[10] The success of the game led Bungie to develop Halo 2, with the developers deciding to "tone down" the character's design, according to Mclees.[9] In the sequels, Master Chief's armor receives an upgrade, and the character received a new design,[11] with residual damage illustrated in the high-definition graphics of Halo 3.[12]

For Halo 4, Bungie bought their independence from Microsoft, with Microsoft assigning further Halo development to 343 Industries.[13] Art director Kenneth Scott aimed to find "sweet spot" where Master Chief's armor remained familiar but still new. The armor was redesigned to feel futuristic and heavy, weighing hundreds of pounds, with details inspired by real-world military vehicles.[14] In contrast to newer characters, the armor of Master Chief and his fellow elder Spartans was intended to look more tanklike and utilitarian.[15] Despite the visual differences between the character's armor in Halo 3 and Halo 4, the developers intended it to canonically be the same armor.[12] Halo 4 also made extensive use of motion capture for character animation, with Bruce Thomas portraying Master Chief while interacting with multiple actors in studio. Even without his face or voice appearing in the game, Thomas was credited by creative director Josh Holmes for conveying Master Chief's physicality and emotions, and for influencing the other actors' performances.[13] With the development of Halo Infinite, Thomas returned to provide motion capture for the character, as he had in Halo 4 and Halo 5.[16] 343 Industries redesigned Master Chief's armor once again, while drawing inspiration from the character's previous looks.[17]

Voice actor Steve Downes at Otakuthon in 2011

Bungie designed Master Chief as a man of few words, similar to Clint Eastwood.[18] The game designers crafted the first game's experience as lonely, to reinforce the backstory that Chief's friends had been largely killed.[5] Master Chief rarely spoke in the early Halo games, making him an almost-silent protagonist.[19] Joseph Staten felt that a focus on immersion was key to developing Master Chief's personality in the games, as "the less players knew about the Chief, we believed, the more they would feel like the Chief."[5] Even with the tie-in novel The Fall of Reach, some at Bungie were against its release because they felt that Master Chief should remain less characterized.[20]

Master Chief is voiced by actor Steve Downes, who began his career as a Chicago disc jockey.[18] He was recommended by Bungie musical director Martin O'Donnell, based on their rapport from working together on the game Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator'.[21] Septerra was the first time Downes had performed as a voice actor for a game,[21] and otherwise had never played a video game until Halo.[18] Downes described being accepted for the part of Master Chief over the phone, without an interview or audition.[21] Actor Steve Downes noted that he was given creative freedom to develop the Chief's personality during recording.[18] Still, many of the character's lines in the first game were eventually cut, as Bungie felt that the more the character spoke, "the more chances there are that we’ll get it wrong for you, whoever you are."[22]

With the wide success of the Halo series, Bungie considered recasting a celebrity for the role before deciding against it.[23] By Halo 4, 343 Industries wanted to treat Master Chief as less of a vessel for the players, and more of a fully realized human being.[24] Downes recalls that he felt like he could have lost the role for Halo 4, and that his audition would need to demonstrate more emotional weight.[23] Downes became more involved throughout the development of Halo 4, giving input on advance scripts, and recording in longer sessions.[23][25] Where Master Chief began the first game with an artificial intelligence companion named Cortana, designed as a gameplay tool to guide the player, Cortana also became a narrative tool to reveal the protagonist's humanity.[5] As such, Halo 4 became the first game to have Downes to interact with actress Jen Taylor (Cortana) in the same space.[23][25] Halo 4 creative director Josh Holmes cited the game Ico as an inspiration for the Chief-Cortana relationship, noting how the game told a story without dialogue, while also balancing the protagonist's character development with his stoic nature.[26]

For years, Downes never appeared at Bungie or Microsoft events, believing that the character's identity "is really in the eye of the player."[18] He has called the role the most rewarding of his voice acting career.[23]

Master Chief first appears in Halo: Combat Evolved, the first game in the series. Master Chief and the crew of the UNSC ship Pillar of Autumn discover an alien ringworld, called Halo. Master Chief is entrusted with safeguarding Cortana, the ship's artificial intelligence, from capture. While fighting the Covenant, Master Chief and Cortana learn that an ancient race known as the Forerunners created Halo as a last line of defense against an alien parasite called the Flood, which begins to spread across the ring. Learning that the Halo was designed to contain the Flood by killing all life in the Galaxy, Master Chief detonates the Pillar of Autumn in order to destroy Halo, escaping in a fighter spacecraft with Cortana.[35]

Master Chief returns to Earth in Halo 2 (2004), defending the planet from a Covenant invasion. Pursuing a fleeing Covenant vessel, Master Chief and the crew of the human ship In Amber Clad discover another Halo ring. Master Chief is captured by a Flood intelligence known as a Gravemind, who forges an alliance between them and the disgraced Covenant commander known as the Arbiter. The Gravemind sends them to stop the Halo's activation, with Master Chief arriving at the Covenant space station High Charity, near the Halo's orbit. Cortana remains on the space station to ensure the ring is destroyed if activated. Master Chief pursues the remaining Covenant leader, the Prophet of Truth, who has plans of activating the Halo Array from outside the galaxy.[35]

The story continues in Halo 3 (2007), when Master Chief reunites with the Arbiter to stop the Prophet of Truth. Master Chief and Arbiter pursue the Prophet through a portal to the Ark, a place located beyond the Milky Way. On the Ark, the Flood-controlled High Charity crashes into the installation. Master Chief stops the Halo Array from firing and battles through the wreckage of High Charity to rescue Cortana. Together, they activate a replacement Halo being built on the Ark, stopping the Flood and sparing the galaxy at large. While the Arbiter reaches Earth, Master Chief and Cortana escape aboard the UNSC ship Forward Unto Dawn before setting adrift in space.[35]

Master Chief returns as the playable protagonist in Halo 4 (2012)[35] after his omission from Halo 3: ODST (2009), and a brief easter egg in Halo: Reach (2010).[36] Halo 4 begins with Cortana awakening Master Chief from cryonic sleep, while the Forward Unto Dawn drift towards a Forerunner installation, Requiem. Hoping to prevent the UNSC ship Infinity from also being drawn into Requiem, Master Chief and Cortana attempt to activate what they believe is a communications relay. Instead, Master Chief awakens the Didact, a Forerunner with a militant grudge against humanity. Master Chief and Cortana pursue the Didact, stopping his attack on Earth when Cortana sacrifices herself.[35]

At the start of Halo 5: Guardians (2015), Master Chief is contacted by Cortana, presumed to be destroyed in the previous game. She directs him to the human colony of Meridian. By leading his Blue Team to the colony against UNSC orders, Master Chief provokes a rival group of Spartans, Fireteam Osiris. The Blue Team boards a buried Forerunner construct known as a Guardian, which transports them to the Forerunner planet Genesis. Cortana reveals that she survived thanks to the Domain, a repository of ancient Forerunner knowledge. Cortana reveals her authoritarian plans for the galaxy, and imprisons Master Chief and his team in stasis. They are rescued through the efforts of Fireteams Osiris, but forced to retreat as Cortana mobilizes the Forerunner Guardians and other human AIs as her enforcers.[35]

Master Chief returns as the main protagonist in Halo Infinite (2021). The story has him work with the Weapon, an AI modelled after Cortana, to stop another Halo from being activated by space pirates known as the Banished.[37]

Pablo Schreiber, who plays Master Chief in the 2022 Halo television series

The character made his live-action debut in the 2012 film Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, portrayed physically by Daniel Cudmore, with voice acting from Alex Puccinelli.[38][39][40] In the 2022 Halo television series, the character is played by Pablo Schreiber.[41] Master Chief takes off his helmet in the series, as an effort to make the audience empathize with the character.[42][43][44][45] He was also intended to appear in a cancelled Halo film, with Director Neill Blomkamp planning a faceless depiction in support of other major characters.[46]

The Master Chief is also a major character in the novels Silent Storm (2018), Oblivion (2019), and Shadows of Reach (2020), written by Troy Denning.[47] The character also appears in the 2010 animated anthology Halo Legends, as well as the comics The Halo Graphic Novel, Halo: Uprising, Halo: Collateral Damage, and Halo: Tales from Slipspace.[48] Peter David's graphic novel Helljumpers contains a cameo by the Master Chief "before he actually was [the Chief]".[49]

The character appears in games outside the Halo canon. This includes a guest appearance as a playable character in Super Bomberman R for the Xbox One,[50] and a cosmetic outfit in the battle royale game Fortnite.[51] Fable II includes a medieval variation of the Master Chief's armor, worn by a legendary hero named "Hal".[52] The character is also referenced in Rooster Teeth Productions' Halo-based machinima parody series Red vs. Blue.[53] When Team Ninja approached Bungie to use the Master Chief in Dead or Alive 4 (2006), they declined due to storyline restrictions, resulting in the inclusion of another Spartan supersoldier named Nicole (Spartan-458).[54]

Marketing for the video games have focused heavily on Master Chief, including "The Museum",[55] part of Halo 3's "Believe" campaign,[56] the Halo 4 live-action trailer,[57] Halo 5's Hunt the Truth,[58] and Infinite's "Become" campaign.[59] The character has also been used to market several physical products, including Slurpees, Mountain Dew, branded controllers, and clothing.[60][61][62][63] Several Master Chief action figures were marketed around the Halo series, including lines by McFarlane,[64][65] Jazwares,[66] 1000toys,[67] and Mega Bloks. One2One collectibles also produced 1:2 scale busts of the Master Chief.[68] The heavy merchandising was considered necessary for the game franchise; Ed Ventura, director of Xbox's worldwide marketing, said, "We want to be in the hearts and minds of our fans as much as we can."[69]

Master Chief has been described as "iconic" in multiple media outlets, including IGN, Kotaku, Glixel, GamesRadar, and The Sydney Morning Herald.[70][71][72][73][74] The character has appeared on lists of the best video gaming characters by UGO,[75] Empire,[76] GamesRadar,[77] Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition,[78] Complex,[79] and Time.[80] IGN suggested that the dramatic death of the character could be one of the most powerful events in gaming.[81] Voice actor Steve Downes realized the character was such a huge hit only after children lined up around the block for his autograph a year after the first game shipped.[21]

In an article in Time, Lev Grossman called the Master Chief a "new kind of celebrity for a new and profoundly weird millennium", as well as a sign of video games becoming a more legitimate art form.[27] The recognition of Master Chief has spread to mainstream culture; Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas has developed a wax sculpture of the Chief. At the ceremony, Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy called the Master Chief a hero of the times as much as characters like Spider-Man and Luke Skywalker were for previous generations.[82] Master Chief has also been called the de facto symbol for Microsoft, their Xbox console, and a generation of gamers.[73][83][84][85] BusinessWeek listed the Master Chief among several video game characters who have been branded beyond their respective video games, "helping them transcend the very medium in the process".[86]

The faceless nature of the character has alternatively been praised and criticized.[87] Writing for The Artifice, Sam Gray argued that the character's lack of conflict made him uninteresting, as he uncomfortably straddles the line between silent and active protagonist.[88] O'Connor noted that players invest the character with much of his meaning, creating a conflict between players who prefer more personality and those who prefer "a sort of paragon of useful emptiness".[89] IGN has called him gaming's most overrated character, due to his status as a "generic" action hero.[90]

The more character-focused portrayal of Chief in Halo 4 was positively received. Todd Martens of the Los Angeles Times called Halo 4 a more introspective Halo game, and the first to explore the motivations and emotions of the Master Chief.[85] While reviews found the game's story hard to follow, they praised efforts to flesh out Master Chief's character, and his relationship with Cortana.[72][91][92] Halo 5 received backlash from fans about Master Chief's reduced role in the story, as he appeared in fewer story missions compared to Fireteam Osiris.[93] Kotaku's Stephen Totilo wrote that the confrontation between Locke and Master Chief felt "under-cooked", preferring how Hunt the Truth presented the story of a rogue Master Chief.[94] O'Connor responded by promising to refocus on Master Chief in future media.[95]

Reviewers have suggested that Master Chief's birth name John-117 could be a Biblical reference.[96][97] Comparing Halo to the Christopher Rowley's novel Starhammer, IGN noted similar elements between Master Chief and the character Jon 6725416.[97] Michael Nitsche of the Georgia Institute of Technology made comparisons to Half-Life protagonist Gordon Freeman, as both characters "are the independent, individualistic, and often lonely heroes that gain admiration by constantly proving their superiority ... in technology-driven, hostile, often closed spaces."[98] Roger Travis, associate professor of classics at the University of Connecticut, compared Master Chief to the epic hero Aeneas, in that both martial settings involve superhuman characters protecting civilization against strong enemies.[99] Matthew Stover compared Halo to the Iliad, with the shared theme that "war is the crucible of character".[100] Stover also argues that the cyborg is an apt characterization for the Master Chief, since the character is more relatable than a pure machine, but still not fully characterized as a human being.[100]