343 Industries’ second major entry in Microsoft’s Halo franchise won’t be out on the Xbox One until late next year. That leaves more than enough time to speculate about what comes next for the series’s expansive science fiction universe. In Halo 4, 343 Industries introduced a new villain called the Ur-Didact and his army of Prometheans, instead of the Covenant and Flood enemies that were so prominent in Bungie’s run with the series. But what comes next in Halo 5?
WARNING: Spoilers for the entire Halo series including Halo 4 and the comic series Halo: Escalation.
Though Halo 4 ended with a subdued Ur-Didact being strapped with a bomb, the still on-going comic series Halo: Escalation revealed in recent issues the events immediately happening after the game. For starters, Ur-Didact survived the blast, and landed near an installment with even more Composers, a powerful Forerunner weapon which can digitize sentient creatures first shown in Halo 4’s campaign.
The Forerunner military lead is almost impossible to kill, so the chances we see him again in Halo 5, either prominently or in the background, seem pretty strong, though things may change as the Halo: Escalation story progresses further.
Halo 4’s campaign proved to be a lot more emotional than previous installments in the series because of losing Cortana. Master Chief’s AI sidekick had been a major character, often narrating and explaining events to the player. Now that’s she gone, how will Master Chief take it? Is she definitely gone forever?
It’s hard to tell either way. In Halo 4, Cortana asks Chief to promise her to figure out which one of them was the machine. Though not far removed from the video game trope of the quiet ‘space marine’, Cortana provided the one outlet for the Spartan to display any real human emotion. Hopefully in Halo 5, this will carry over and further evolve the character by rounding him out as more human than machine.
First introduced in Halo 2, The Arbiter has since become a leader for the Elites, the former members of the Covenant that had been one of Master Chief’s most feared enemy throughout the series. Given the rise of a new Covenant led by the rebel Elite, Jul ‘Mdama who featured prominently in Halo 4’s Spartan Ops series, it is about time to see him return in a bigger way.
Halo 5 plans to introduce the Arbiter as an aid to Jameson Locke, a new playable Spartan tasked with locating Master Chief. Locke’s origin story will be revealed in the upcoming Ridley Scott-produced webseries, Halo: Nightfall, played by actor Mike Colter.
Catherine Halsey is a major character throughout the entire Halo series. She was one of the primary scientists involved in the SPARTAN program on Reach which birthed the game’s protagonist John-117, as well as a number of other Spartans. She finally made her debut as a prominent on-screen character in Halo 4’s Spartan Ops series.
As things currently stand, Halsey’s loyalties are no longer clear. After thwarting Jul ‘Mdama and the New Covenenant from retrieving both halves of the Janus Key, an artifact that would reveal the location of every Forerunner artifact, she was captured by Jul ‘Mdama but took a near fatal shot from UNSC forces in the shoulder. After amputating the arm to save her life, Jul ‘Mdama becomes enraged when he finds out Halsey’s treachery, but she vows to assist him and the New Covenant in order to get revenge.
Gravemind was another major antagonist in the Halo series, first appearing in Halo 2 before being destroyed in Halo 3. As a leader of the Flood, Gravemind’s intelligence came from the collective intelligence of every creature the Flood had assimilated. Yet, Gravemind itself was never a singular entity; in fact, Gravemind can be constructed and reconstructed by surviving Flood, and every new Gravemind retains the intelligence and memory of previous Graveminds, making it a virtually omniscient creature.
Though the Flood sat out all of Halo 4, it is hard to imagine them never returning. Much of the series backstory revolves around both humanity and the Forerunners trying to control the Flood menace - they are nearly impossible to kill off completely. In issue #6 of the Halo: Escalation comic series, a lone infectious Flood is revealed on the UNSC ship, Spirit of Fire, which is on a crash course toward an unknown planet. In other words, we may soon see another outbreak of the Flood.
