Fans of the ‘Halo’ series have been hungry for a major movie or TV adaptation for a long time now. While plans to make a full-on Hollywood production fell through years ago, a couple of movie-like productions have been made, but they were web series and even though one of them was produced by Ridley Scott himself, neither was the big production people were hoping for. However, back in 2013 it was announced that Steven Spielberg would produce a ‘Halo’ TV series that would air on XBox Live. In 2014 it was revealed that Showtime was in negotiations to also air the series. Things have been quiet since then and probably no one would blame you for assuming it had been cancelled as well.

Fortunately, the folks at IGN managed to get a couple of answers out of David Nevins, the president of Showtime, about ‘Halo’ and it’s a “good news, bad news” situation. When asked if Showtime was still involved with the Spielberg ‘Halo’ series, Nevins responded, “It’s still in development. Still in very active development.” So that’s good. The “very active” would indicate that it’s not just in development hell, but is something that they actually plan on finishing. The bad news, however, is that when asked if more details would be forthcoming, Nevins answered simply, “No time soon.” So don’t hold your breath.

What’s most likely going on has to do with the fact that Microsoft wants to release the show on XBox Live as well as on TV, and it’s taking a while to iron out the details of just how that will happen. Back when Showtime’s possible involvement with the series was first reported, it was said that they were “charting new territory” with the series’ distribution. Perhaps, but that was a year ago. If Showtime were still having difficulty working something out with Microsoft over distribution then they probably wouldn’t say that ‘Halo’ is in “very active” development. If, for some reason, a disagreement on distribution is still the problem, then I find myself with little sympathy for Showtime. A lot of legacy entertainment companies have been rather slow to adapt to the realities of modern, internet-based distribution, and they’re hurting because of it. I just hope that a potentially good series, like Spielberg’s ‘Halo,’ doesn’t suffer as well because of it.

So what do you think? Are you still waiting for a big budget ‘Halo’ series, or have you given up hope? Why all the delays? Let us know in the comments below.