This Halo Episode 3 Teaser Features A Familiar Blue AI

Paramount+ has dropped a teaser for the third episode of "Halo," and it features a glimpse of a certain blue AI, who may be familiar to fans of the Xbox video games on which the series is based. That's right: it looks like Cortana is about to make her live-action debut on the next episode of "Halo."

The series premiere of "Halo" set a new viewership record for Paramount+, so clearly there was enough interest behind this show to get people tuning in as it went about its initial bit of world-building. Cortana will expand the show's world even more with a character who has been part of the franchise since the original game, "Halo: Combat Evolved," debuted back in 2001.

Up to this point, the "Halo" streaming series, which involves Spartan supersoldiers and an alien threat called the Covenant, has had Dr. Catherine Halsey, played by Natascha McElhone, working on an AI "to help control and enhance Spartans" (per HITC). However, the show had yet to unveil Cortana, who is being played by Jen Taylor, the same actress who has voiced the character in the Xbox games since the very beginning.

Check out the trailer for episode 3 of "Halo" below.

In the teaser, Pablo Schreiber's un-helmeted protagonist, Master Chief, says that the truth about what happened to his parents "could bring us all down." Dr. Halsey replies, "That's what Cortana's for," and we then see Cortana's blue holographic self, but only from the back, as she looms behind Master Chief and he gazes out the window. It's definitely a coy way to reveal the entrance of Cortana into the live-action "Halo" world.

The first season of "Halo" will have nine episodes total, so it will already be a third of the way through its run after episode 3. Yet the series has already been renewed for a second season, which is set to begin filming this summer, so there are plenty more space adventures yet to come, and now Cortana will be a part of those adventures. 

Here's the synopsis for "Halo:"

Dramatizing an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant, Halo the series will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future. Nobody can save humanity alone-not even the Master Chief. Meet the heroes who will risk losing everything to come together and protect humankind from the universe's greatest threat.

The third episode of "Halo" hits Paramount+ on Thursday, April 7, 2022.