Paramount+’s Halo show has not yet covered the bulk of the Halo video games in its adaptive process—which means for Master Chief and his fellow Spartans, and the rest of humanity, things are going to get a lot, lot worse before they get better. Part of that will see the show take a big step closer to the video games when season two begins this week, as it tackles a huge piece of Halo lore: the Fall of Reach.
It was first explored in the Eric Nylund novel of the same name—released just weeks before Halo: Combat Evolved launched in 2001—and then extrapolated upon further in 2010’s Halo: Reach, the final game in the franchise to be developed by Halo creators Bungie. The Fall of Reach marks a huge battle in the early days of humanity’s conflict against the alien forces of the Covenant. Striking deep into human territory, the attack—and ultimate defeat—set the stage for the dire stakes of the Human-Covenant War, and kickstarted the original story of Microsoft’s legendary shooter series in earnest.
Given that the Halo TV show is already operating in its own take on the Halo timeline, we don’t really know just how the show is going to approach the Fall of Reach—we just know it’s a major anchor point for its sophomore season. So before things kick off, here’s what you need to know about the last two times we’ve seen this battle rage on in Halo fiction.
