Halo Infinite could feature Spartans from the Halo Extended Universe.
Earlier this week, user Atill555 clipped a podcast featuring actor Verlon Roberts on the Halo subreddit. And in this one, Roberts talked about his experiences working on Halo Infinite. He revealed that his character is called Spartan Griffin and that he performed in front of the Master Chief during motion capture sessions. Roberts noted that Chief is much taller than Griffin in the game, and that Roberts had to speak in a baseball cap with a tennis ball on the end to make up the difference.
Roberts posted a photo of himself in mocap clothes on Instagram in 2020, which may be from when he was working on Infinite. The Mega Construx leaks previously revealed the existence of a Spartan Griffin toy, who wears purple Mark VII armor.
Mega Construx Halo Heroes Series 14 is slowly leaking! So far we only got two figures so far, which is Spartan Trailblazer (Spartan Stone?) and Spartan Mark VII (Spartan Griffin?) Ctedit: Target and thanks to travisz7963 for the information. pic.twitter.com/pL5FbcDDKq
— Mega Construx News (@megabloksnews) February 4, 2021
While this already provides more details on the game’s story and characters, fans of the Halo novels have pointed out that a character named Spartan Griffin already exists in the Halo Extended Universe. In the book Halo: Shadows of Reach: A Master Chief Story, Master Chief meets Commander Palmer (a character that the voice actress Jennifer Hale has confirmed she’s in Halo Infinite), which is in charge of a UNSC Infinity Spartan-IV team called Fireteam Taurus, which has been sent by Captain Lasky to fight the Outcasts (Halo Infinite’s antagonists) on the planet Reach. And one of the Spartans in the crew is called GRIFFIN.
In the past, 343 Industries has said that Shadows of Reach is not a “required reading” to enjoy Halo Infinite, but its author, Troy Denning, also had the following to say: “343 I wanted Shadows to take a look at certain plot points that also appear more fully within Halo Infinite, and many times this can mean that certain elements that I am writing in my manuscript come to life in parallel with those that are being developing for the Halo Infinite story and game. “.
Halo Infinite takes place in Installation 07 or Zeta Halo, following a battle between the UNSC and The Outcasts, led by Warchief Escharum, whom we saw in the Halo Infinite game reveal. From the game’s advancement we also know that the UNSC Infinity crew suffered heavy casualties in the battle that frames the game’s story. It’s not unreasonable to suggest that some may have survived, including Commander Palmer and Spartan Griffin, played by Verlon Roberts, who appears to have acted in front of the Halo Infinite Master Chief.
We don’t have a confirmed release date for Halo Infinite after the title was pushed back to Fall 2021, but another interesting fact from the interview is that Roberts said the game was “postponed to the end of November this year”. We cannot confirm that date yet, but it may be a useful indicator.