Long-running rumours that Tom Cruise nearly voiced Master Chief in Halo 2 have finally been addressed by one of the people closest to the franchise’s development.
Former Bungie composer and voice director Marty O’Donnell has confirmed that discussions involving Cruise and actress Julia Roberts did take place during the production of the 2004 Xbox sequel, although he stressed the idea never progressed beyond an initial conversation.
Speaking to Game Informer, O’Donnell revealed that representatives for the Hollywood stars approached Bungie with the proposal.
Halo, Credit Xbox MENA, Wiki Commons (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.)
He said, “Tom Cruise was already a Bungie fan, believe it or not. He had played Myth, so this wasn’t the first time we’d heard about Tom Cruise.”
O’Donnell added, “The conversation was basically their agent saying, ‘We should make this deal to get Tom Cruise to be Master Chief, and Julia Roberts to be Cortana in Halo 2.’”
The suggestion would have seen Cruise replace Steve Downes, who had already become synonymous with the iconic Spartan following the success of 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved. Roberts, meanwhile, would have taken over from Jen Taylor as Cortana.
O’Donnell admitted the prospect of working with two of Hollywood’s biggest stars sounded exciting on paper, but believed it would have alienated fans.
He explained, “I knew that would have ruined everything. I know game fans are not necessarily blown away by big stars; they’re blown away by solid gameplay and emotionally compelling stories.”
Master Chief, Halo, Credit Xbox MENA, Wiki Commons (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.)
“I would have had a blast working with Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts, but there was no way that I could replace Jen Taylor and Steve Downes, because the fans already had a relationship with those voices.”
“It was never really in the cards to be considered. It’s just a fun story, but it never went any further than that one conversation.”
Downes and Taylor are now set to reprise their famous roles in Halo: Campaign Evolved, the upcoming remake from Halo Studios launching on July 28.
The remaster will feature updated visuals, expanded gameplay, two-player split-screen on consoles, four-player online co-op, and cross-platform progression across Xbox and PC.
For Halo fans, it seems Master Chief’s voice was never truly in danger of changing, even if one of Hollywood’s biggest names briefly entered the conversation.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
