As Master Chief gets “older”, and IRL more stale, we may want to see a new cover for Halo. But who could replace our beloved Master Chief? I think that there are only three options.
A previously introduced character
Unlike Locke, if a character is a “sidekick” to chief slowly becomes the face of Halo, I think it would not cause as big of an upset. For example, they could use the Arbiter. The Arbiter was already Chief’s sidekick, and could be used to fade Chief out. However, Arbiter is already old as well, and doesn’t have Spartan enhancements.
Another perk for an introduced character that has previously been in the games is that they can have old characters, such as Thorne, be more involved and important. They could even bring their own fire team.
We also don’t have to limit it to characters we already know. We just need to see them involved ingame first.
Ourselves
Of course beside the Chief, the only other player we’ve had is ourselves. As Noble Six in Reach, or Rookie in ODST. People love both characters, and they can easily be thrown away because they have no personality or growth.
The player can also project themselves directly onto the player, or even create an entire Fireteam of their personas. Are you a furry? Create a fireteam of cat eared Spartans!
Jun/Jerome
Both Jun and Jerome are previous characters they have been established and also inside their own games, rather than inside of Chief’s. Jun in Reach, Jerome in Halo Wars. Since they are both loved, and still around.
And with Jerome being a Spartan II he would be able to give us additional lore on Chief or other Spartan IIs
Jun being a Spartan III wouldn’t give us tons of lore, but we could get lore on NOBLE team and some other missions they did. Or what Jun did during the Spartan IV program.
While I think that Chief will always remain inside Halo, even if he is mentioned only by name, a Halo game/campaign that takes place around Chief, but as a different character, would give some amount of depth to him, as we can see his heroic actions as our character sits back.
Edit:
I was thinking about the thread and realized, if we ever see the Pilot or Esparda as he will be called., start fighting the banished, and using a gun, we could see him become a Spartan IV. He would be a good character, as we would see his progression. He would create the new Chief, Cortana, Johnson trio we had in the old games, being Chief, Weapon, Pilot. Having the pilot as a Spartan IV could create some new dialogue, as well as Chief-pilot moments like we saw after the Tovarus-Hyperius boss fight. It could also show how Chief brought hope to people who had none, where the Pilot tells someone who has lost hope about how he regained his own hope.
I think that’s the wrong way to think about it. You brought up Reach and ODST. People aren’t inherently opposed to a game where you play as somebody else. The issue is Halo games are only coming out every six years and so people want to see his story continue. The perception is that if you play as another character you are missing out rather than this being bonus stuff like ODST or Reach.
Plus, 343 themselves made the Chief/Cortana thing central to the narrative so it just doesn’t make sense playing as another Spartan if that’s the story you want to tell.
I also don’t think they need to replace him anymore than you could replace Doomguy. The character is an icon for the franchise.
If it was me. I wouldn’t be opposed to getting Laura Bailey as Vale again for her own game. Very different character to the Chief. More room to tell different kind of story like stuff with the Elites and more politics stuff. Problem is there’s a limit to what 343 can put out so there’s not really room for a spin off game. I think campaign DLC will continue to follow the Chief.
I’d like for them to go into how the Arbiter views Atriox and the Elites that serve him. There’s some drama to be had there.
Atriox is kind of like a twisted version of the Arbiter. Both betray the Covenant but for the Arbiter it’s a soul searching moment for an honourable warrior. Whereas with Atriox he does it because he wants power and believes the Covenant is weak. I could see that war being very bitter.
Atriox is kind of reforming the evil Empire that the Arbiter ended. He would probably realise that what Atriox is selling isn’t brotherhood but the subjugation of the Elites by a species that tried to wipe them out. So he would fight him to ensure Sanghelios is free.
I doubt it about Jun. Right know Jun’s fate is unknown, the last thing we know about him is that he was on Laconia Station, a spacial platform that got blown up by Leonidas, an AI supporter of Cortana, but things could change in the future…
idk about Jerome, he already has his own story in the Halo Wars games, it would be like taking Chief out of the main games and putting him in an RTS. If 343 has any plans on to make Halo Wars 3, then i doubt they could get rid of Jerome to use it to replace Chief.
Fireteam Osiris is gone forever. 343 can’t accept that their characters needed more work, so they kill them or never mention them again. Just look at what they did with Ur didact or Jul 'Mdama.
My best bet, Alpha Nine could be the next “Chief”. Maybe we could be a new “rookie”, or more like a new “Noble 6” (since they all are Spartan IV now).
Also, there is the Blue team, they could work as new protagonists too.
I understand that, but as time progresses, it could be good to bring him out of the limelight. Especially as @Trand0 mentioned, Steve Downes is getting older. I’m not saying he’s about to go the way of the dinosaurs, but he may want to retire from voice acting, or just do less voicing.
Idk. I would be fine with some spin-off games but I wouldn’t want another character to become the new main character in the main line series. Good things should come to an end, or they won’t remain good forever.
Steve Downes is human, but the master chief himself is not. They’ll almost certainly recast his voice or reboot the series before ever even considering replacing the character. (And the only character even close to following in his footsteps was the rookie)
Also should add: the rookie was a casualty of both the awful mess that was Halo 5’s story and the push to erase silent protagonists in the early 2010s; 343 did him and johnson dirty with those books.
If Master Chief, Spartan 117 ever gets replaced and it’s not followed by the Arbiter, then I do not know what I would do. I’m still waiting on a spin off for the Arbiter.
Here’s how I would have done the entire “replacement of Chief” in the first place:
Chief getting older and he is “retired” from active duty but secretly shipped off to train a new, specialized squad of Spartans.
These Spartans are the most volatile of the new batch and were recruited young as well, like S2s and S3s, so they’re off the records and instead of a company, it’s just a Squad of 4.
These 4 are Vale, Tanaka, Locke and one more, and are trained personally by the Chief, but then Chief goes awol after the whole “call of Cortana thing” happens. These 4, Osiris are tasked to bring Chief in and they would naturally be conflicted because he’s their mentor and trainer, but they do it anyway.
After the whole Cortana situation is resolved, we have Infinite with Chief again, but later in the story we refocus back onto Osiris as they meet up. Then we can have a proper transition from Chief to the new squad of Hyper Lethals.
But since that’s never gonna happen, I think we should have someone from Agryna’s batch (us) or Agryna herself. I wouldn’t mind Agryna as a main character if she’s written well unlike Palmer.
nobody can really replace the chief he is bouth in universe and in RL an icon , symbol , legend. it would come unatural elevating somebody random to the same status. any new character would always be under him. also Master Chief is a Spartan , they live biologiclly much longer and are absoulutely battleworthy even in high ages while the theme with aging was touched upon in Halo 4 he wasnt really aging much ( in fact he was only misssing like 3 years in cryostasis ) i think it was more meant chief was aging as a Spartan II a spartan generation with not many left being replaced by the new generations. But since then it got thrown out of the window. Eassantially with infinite they rebootetthe chief as a character , made him the focus again. They wont risk another halo 5 campaing critisism. Hell even back then in Halo 2 people criticised the game for being half played by the arbiter ( and not only that but the finale of the game one played as the arbiter too ) wich is the reason the arbiter got pushed a bit to the side in Halo 3 ( basicly bungie had the same lesson ). Now with the halo series coming up and featuring master chief i dont see him not being a major part of any mainline halo game. what would be half life without Gordon Freeman, Doom without the Doomguy , Splinter cell without Sam Fisher , Metal gear Solid without Snake , Metroid without Samus Aran… you get my point.
