Halo will have its future revealed later today at the Halo Championship Finals, but ahead of a potential new game’s debut, fans are disgusted by a horrendous recast plan.
You simply couldn’t have Halo without Master Chief, who’s been an enormous suit of green armour that players can visualise as themselves fighting back Covenant forces and saving the galaxy.
The reason Bungie didn’t spend a lot of time on who Master Chief is during the initial trilogy is because he was intended to be a medium for the player. Rather than a UNSC soldier, players would see themselves under the helmet and become immersed in his story.
That said, I don't think Chief would have been nearly as compelling without the tremendous voice work of Steve Downes, who’s voiced the character since his debut in Halo: Combat Evolved all the way up to the latest game, Halo: Infinite.
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However, did you know that Steve Downes was originally meant to be replaced after voicing Chief in the first game?
In an interview with Dexerto, Downes said that after Halo: Combat Evolved, he almost lost the role to Hollywood star Tom Cruise, as for future entries in the series Microsoft wanted more celebrity presence.
It’s a common story in the video game industry, as Hideo Kojima wanted to replace David Hayter with a more well-known celebrity after he voiced Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid.
Downes said, "There was a suggestion that they were going to get some celebrity voices to do these characters and somebody said Tom Cruise was mentioned as being the voice of Master Chief.”
Obviously, this didn’t happen, which Downes attributed to the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Fans weren't happy with this revelation
As you can imagine, the fans were thrilled to know this plan never went ahead, as while Tom Cruise is a fine actor, I just can’t fathom Master Chief existing without Downes’ voice to back him up; it just doesn’t seem right.
“Thank god this didn’t happen,” replied one fan to the news, with another saying Steve Downes to Master Chief is what Kevin Conroy was for Batman.
“I know what he means. When they replaced the voice actor of Sam Fisher, the legendary Michael Ironside, [in] Splinter cell with someone else the game was dead,” said another.
Hopefully, Steve Downes and the rest of the cast are returning for the rumoured Halo: Combat Evolved remake; it just wouldn’t be the same without them.
Topics: Halo, Halo Infinite, Halo Studios, Xbox, Microsoft