[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/AcceptableEgg5741]

The Halo show felt like i was watching a crime being comitted, its absurd that they thought that show was good enough to be released

[u/Muse9901 → u/AcceptableEgg5741]

I couldn’t believe as part of the marketing campaign that the actors and producers were openly bragging about avoiding the game completely and making assurances that the show will benefit tremendously from it.

[u/The_Grand_Briddock → u/Muse9901]

I checked out the moment they came out with the tagline "find the Halo, win the war".

First of all, that's to the tune of "London Bridge is falling down". Second of all, it immediately goes against the plot of the games where they just stumbled upon it by chance - it didn't even win the war for them.

[u/Muse9901 → u/The_Grand_Briddock]

I also couldn’t stand that they ditched the spartan design from Forward Unto Dawn. The uncanny valley look of an augmented human was perfect. Everything about the IP was laid out for them to make an amazing adaptation and they just completely fumbled.

[u/Profoundlyahedgehog → u/Muse9901]

Having a unique design for super soldiers is too difficult. Much easier to make him "grizzled military guy #2236."

[u/ashez2ashes → u/Muse9901]

The sheer hubris of Hollywood when it thinks shitting on the source material will endear them to the audience never ceases to amaze me.

[u/Wrong-Strength-5993 → u/Muse9901]

Yeah. That was mind blowing to me. Why would they admit that, none the less treat it like a good thing.

[u/broken_conures → u/Muse9901]

Honestly I thought that was a good idea in a lot of ways, the game has been played, remastered, played again and played to death. There's zero tension or intrigue in a show that follows the original plot 1:1 since we already know everything that will happen. Could make for some cool visuals but that's a very expensive set of cutscenes to make that could get pretty repetitive.

[u/Muse9901 → u/broken_conures]

I’m not saying they needed to follow the exact plot of the game but they retconned the lore of covenant, spartan program, halo rings, and the world building to a much lamer more bland version then mashed it together into a poorly written incoherent show.

[u/broken_conures → u/Muse9901]

I dunno, I thought it was pretty decent and did a good job making that stuff intriguing even though I've been playing it non stop for two decades

[u/kironex → u/broken_conures]

You are the absolute minority here. The last of us went over great because it stayed true to the source as did fallout.

[u/broken_conures → u/kironex]

The last of us was also a very story driven game with a lot of room to flesh out their ideas. A big part of its success was that it was a really good story already, halo was heavily carried by it's combat providing a lot of the excitement too, the kind of stuff that's a nightmare for putting on the screen without spending a fortune

The story of the original halo is good, but pretty threadbare if you strip out the filler that would be boring to watch

[u/kironex → u/broken_conures]

There are 30 book. "Threadbare" is not the words i would use.

[u/broken_conures → u/kironex]

I'm talking specifically the original, the first book as a retelling of the game is a really good example of why it wouldn't work to adapt. Ultimately though I just don't think it's a very interesting story to retell one we all know so well already and the more character driven parts like reach really don't come into their own until the universe is already established

Take the first game, strip out the bulk of the combat because it's expensive to make and would get old fast. What actually happens? Escape pod, gather the boys, fight onto the truth and reconciliation, fight to get the cartographer, fight to the control room, oh shit it's not a weapon, flood reveal, follow guilty for a bit, oh shit it's halo, smashy smashy, blow up the ring.

There's really not much there especially for a show that needs more than a couple of characters

[u/kironex → u/broken_conures]

Literally the creation of the spartans. The fact that they were ment for pirates. That whole section is interpersonal relations and character development.

Halseys being a greater good type would have made for some great drama. Build up to the "halo" section.

You have first contact, reach, THEN halo. If the shows a hit the budget will follow. Being expensive doesnt qualify as a good reason to butcher a story.

Look at the short series foward until dawn. Absolutely phenomenal.

People asked for a halo series. Not a halo inspired story.

[u/broken_conures → u/kironex]

Think about that for a TV series though, set up all those characters and then they're dead by the time we even see a halo

Dunno, I simply don't see the appeal of a series that shows us story we already know so well, it's boring going into every big moment with zero tension or intrigue because you've known what will happen for decades already