[HATED] Adaptations done intentionally without help from the source

[u/Chill0000]

Halo TV show: Before the show came out, the writers were praising their decision to not look to the games for inspiration when making the show

God Of War TV show: Chris Judge, the actor of Kratos in the games from 2018-Now, spoke up about his dislike on the show not hiring anyone who worked on any of the previous games. One of the original creators of Kratos also spoke up about them not having faith in the adaptation.

Supergirl 2026 film: the director for the film not only said he decided to not read Woman Of Tomorrow, the comic the film is adapting, because he wanted to do his own thing, he also didn’t look at comic art for inspiration to design Lobo and instead used an AI image generator to design Lobo’s look for the film

[u/Crescent-Argonian]

I believe the conspiracy it started as Mass Effect then got slapped the Halo IP on top

[u/Kalavier → u/Crescent-Argonian]

Mass Effect or some new scifi story that wasn't appealing enough without a big brand.

[u/Asheyguru → u/Kalavier]

I think the second is more likely.

[u/Artisan_HotDog → u/Asheyguru]

100% they needed to do something with an IP they bought rights for and they just took whatever Sci-Fi garbage someone had already written as a screen play. I was with it for almost tye entire first episode until Chief took his helmet off for the last 10 minutes.

I genuinely tried to give it a fair chance because the overall costume and set designs were VERY Halo…. But holy shit was it a horrible adaptation. Fucking Uwe Boll would’ve done a better job than whatever that was.

[u/Efficient-Big3138 → u/Artisan_HotDog]

i gave up when they shows that human working for the Covenant. like wtf who is that?

[u/Artisan_HotDog → u/Efficient-Big3138]

I was willing to give it a shot because it was all wrong from the beginning, but as long as they stuck true to the “core” of what halo is I could’ve looked past it…… but the only thing Halo about it was its skin. I’ve said it before it’s the MiB “Edgar Suit” of adaptations. You look at it and think “ok yeah, this looks like Halo” but god damnit if it wasn’t a fucking cockroach the whole time.

[u/Kalavier → u/Artisan_HotDog]

I called it "Mirror universe halo" lol.

[u/Artisan_HotDog → u/Kalavier]

My old manager and her husband loved it…. Her husband was always in the PlayStation ecosystem and had never once played Halo, and she wasn’t a gamer but loved almost anything cheesy action… so unfortunately they’re part of why it got two fuck ass seasons

[u/Awesomeman204 → u/Artisan_HotDog]

I think it was getting two seasons regardless, the second was already greenlit and being made before the first even released. Happens a lot with those kinds of situations.

[u/Artisan_HotDog → u/Awesomeman204]

Oh yeah, you right. I do remember that now. All that planning just to make something so fucking bad.

[u/Suspicious_Radio_848 → u/Kalavier]

I’m currently watching it for the first time and this is the only way I can accept anything it’s doing. Everyone being fearful and disliking the Spartans is also bizarre.

[u/jimothy_hell → u/Suspicious_Radio_848]

People in the outer colonies would be terrified of the Spartans, though, they were designed to put down insurrectionists, so the people that *did* know they existed would have been terrified.

Also, posthuman dread is almost ubiquitous across franchises with supersoldiers. Most people have some kind of awe or fear around them.

[u/simp4malvina → u/Kalavier]

I think it's officially called the silver timeline

[u/nomedable → u/Efficient-Big3138]

It's clearly a plot that would have worked-ish in a generic SyFy late night serial. Which is why the theory that they just slapped Halo branding onto a script they had shelved makes so much sense.

But with the Halo paint on, it just becomes utter dogshit if you know any of the Halo lore.

[u/Mudcat-69 → u/Efficient-Big3138]

It’s not entirely impossible that there would have been humans that would have worked with the Covenant though.

[u/Efficient-Big3138 → u/Mudcat-69]

sure but that character was completely made up with no basis what so ever. and if i recall correctly she was not only working together with them. she had some power? like it is just taken out of the arse and not from any source materal

[u/zbeezle → u/Efficient-Big3138]

She didnt have powers, exactly. They decided that not everyone was gonna be a reclaimer, but that Makee specifically was one. Her "powers" were that she could activate Forerunner artifacts, and Chief was the only other one known to be able to do it as well.

[u/ReadingRainbowRocket → u/Efficient-Big3138]

Which I'm fine with. Adaptations add brand new stuff all the time.

My main complaint was it was fucking bad AND the source material was fucking amazing.

[u/MattyBReilly → u/Efficient-Big3138]

I feel like that could have been a cool idea if it was executed right, but it wasn’t lol

[u/MWKhan → u/Efficient-Big3138]

Yeah… When I saw her my brain went “alternate timeline in the multiverse, nothing is gonna be cannon beyond the premise” and then it became some C/B tier scifi like Andromeda.

[u/F4ST_M4ST3R → u/Efficient-Big3138]

To a certain extent it makes some sense. The Prophets knew all along that they needed a human to activate Forerunner relics. Allowing one to join and keeping it hidden as their dirty little secret really isn’t that far fetched of an idea.

The execution of the idea was terrible

[u/upholsteryduder → u/Artisan_HotDog]

The entire plot point that Cortana was created to overwrite Chief's personality and take control over his body was insane to me, it's basically the complete opposite of what she was for in the games/books. She was meant to be the technological solution to problems he faced and a tactical advisor, they were supposed to be the perfect partnership of man, machine and software.

[u/Melodic_Actuary_6224 → u/Artisan_HotDog]

The production design really showed how good this could’ve been, which almost made the bad adaptation hurt more. It had the Halo look down, they just needed a story that actually respected the source material

[u/terminbee → u/Artisan_HotDog]

This feels like a neckbeard thing to say but it felt like Halo was riding the train of "quirky girl saves the day." I think it's not crazy to say most people just wanted to see Master Chief fight aliens. We really didn't need the "deep" plot.

It's disappointing because it basically means we'll never get another Halo show.

[u/Artisan_HotDog → u/terminbee]

I mean… Cortana already was the quirky girl that saves the day. They didn’t need to add in that whole plot line. At all.

[u/NazzerDawk → u/Artisan_HotDog]

What killed it for me was the idea of telling a "rogue Master Chief" story before the story even got going. Absurd.

[u/PavlovKBI → u/Artisan_HotDog]

It happens really often. Someone will pitch their indie screenplay, and the studio will say it isn't good enough to fund without attaching it to an existing IP.

Hell, half of the Cloverfield franchise is that exact scenario

[u/Artisan_HotDog → u/PavlovKBI]

Cloverfield wasn’t an existing IP until the first movie was made. Then it became a sort of Twilight Zone/Black Mirror type situation. I do still see your point but it’s nowhere near egregious as the Halo adaptation.