The iconic role of the Master Chief in Showtime’s upcoming Halo TV show will be played by Pablo Schreiber, and the Orange is the New Black actor is putting in some serious work to physically prepare. On Instagram, he’s shared new photos of the workouts he’s been going through in order to get in adequate shape to play the super soldier.
It appears Schreiber has hired Hollywood personal trainer Eddie Raburn to help get in shape for the big-time video game TV show. He’s going to great lengths to look the part. In these photos, you can see Schreiber doing dune sprints in Oregon. He is clearly dedicated, as he did this workout during some downtime on a trip with his kids. #MakingMasterchief was his hashtag.
Raburn also shared photos, posting images of Schreiber doing push-ups and running with ropes. Raburn says Schreiber has put in “endless work” to get in shape for Halo.
Schreiber has also been doing cardio, it seems, as he posted a picture of himself posing on a running track in front of a barn that says “Spartans.”
Raburn’s fitness and training company, Cal Coast, has worked with training or nutrition programs for actors, stunt doubles, or stunt teams for movies including Spider-Man: Homecoming, First Man, Blade Runner 2049, Wonder Woman 1984, Suicide Squad, and Triple Frontier. They also worked on Den of Thieves, which Schreiber starred in.
It’s interesting that Schreiber is doing so much work to get in shape when presumably little or none of it will be seen if he’s always in his suit. Apart from a very brief tease at the end of Halo 4, the Halo video games have never shown Master Chief’s face. He’s always in his space marine gear. Whether or not that will change with the TV show is unknown.
The Halo TV show is set for a 10-episode Season 1, which will premiere at some point on Showtime, whose parent company, CBS, also owns GameSpot. Halo transmedia boss Kiki Wolfkill recently discussed how Microsoft thinks the show can be like Game of Thrones–just without the incest.
The Halo TV show is being directed by Otto Bathurst, who directed the shocking Black Mirror series premiere. The show is scheduled to begin production later in 2019, and Showtime has ordered 10 hour-long episodes of Halo for its first season.
As for the Halo video game series, Halo Infinite was finally shown off through a story trailer at E3 2019.
