Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series

Halo: The Fall of Reach – The Animated Series is an upcoming animated series adapted from the novel of the same name by Eric Nylund. The series is being created by Sequence in conjunction with 343 Industries. Comprising three acts, the series will be featured in the Limited Edition and Limited Collector's Edition of Halo 5: Guardians. It will be available in its entirety upon the game's release (as opposed to having weekly airing dates like Halo: Nightfall), or a week earlier for those who pre-ordered the Limited Collector's Edition.

Production
Halo: The Fall of Reach – The Animated Series is created and directed by Sequence, along with 343 Industries. The hour-long adaptation is set for release on October 27, 2015, with the Limited Edition and Limited Collector's Edition of Halo 5: Guardians. The series is an animated adaptation of Halo: The Fall of Reach, serving as a way for fans to learn the origins of John-117, Blue Team, and the SPARTAN-II program. One of the goals of the project was to bring new life to the backstory of the Master Chief and his Spartan brethren. Halo: The Fall of Reach – The Animated Series features audio, sound, and visual effects from the Halo series. 343 Industries' Franchise Development Director Frank O'Connor has stated that the series carefully aligns itself with the novel, but takes artistic liberties with certain design choices—such as choice of Covenant ships or weapons. However, the series will tightly adhere to the novel with some additions taken to help "fill in gaps or smooth over previous errors". One of the main challenges of the adaptation was the decision to drop characters' inner monologues from the novel, while fitting the novel's contents into an hour also proved difficult.

The series will feature minor connections to Halo 5: Guardians, which O'Connor claims are "a subtle nod only book readers will even notice". Halo: The Fall of Reach – The Animated Series will share artistic similarities with other works created by Sequence, such as the Terminals for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 4, and Halo 2 Anniversary. Though the scale and fidelity of the animation is noted to be more ambitious, fully animated, and largely 3D, unlike Sequence's previous Halo projects. A trailer for the series was released on July 10, 2015.