{"id":1997232,"date":"2026-06-18T10:36:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T07:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1997232"},"modified":"2026-06-18T10:36:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T07:36:06","slug":"no-tom-cruise-wasnt-nearly-halos-master-chief-and-julia-roberts-wasnt-nearly-in-the-series-either-but-there-was-this-conversation-at-a-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1997232","title":{"rendered":"No, Tom Cruise wasn&#8217;t nearly Halo&#8217;s Master Chief, and Julia Roberts wasn&#8217;t nearly in the series either &#8211; but there was this conversation at a party"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/halo-campaign-evolved\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Halo: Campaign Evolved<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">No, Tom Cruise wasn&#8217;t nearly Halo&#8217;s Master Chief, and Julia Roberts wasn&#8217;t nearly in the series either &#8211; but there was this conversation at a party<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;You&#8217;re in the big times now. You&#8217;ve gotta step everything up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/tom-chief-header.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"An extremely poor Photoshop rendition of Tom Cruise&apos;s face merged with Master Chief.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"tom-chief-header.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/robert-purchese\">Robert Purchese<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Associate Editor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-06-18T10:36:06+00:00\">June 18, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/tom-cruise-julia-roberts-halo-master-chief-bungie?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          7 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"53781f86-0b15-46e5-9f11-c0bb9d1087d4\" data-name=\"Halo: Campaign Evolved\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Halo: Campaign Evolved\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Halo: Campaign Evolved\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Halo: Campaign Evolved\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Halo: Campaign Evolved\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Halo: Campaign Evolved\" title=\"Follow Halo: Campaign Evolved\"><br \/>\n  Follow Halo: Campaign Evolved<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise didn&#8217;t nearly voice Halo&#8217;s famous protagonist Master Chief, and Hollywood superstar Julia Roberts wasn&#8217;t nearly in Halo either. There <em>was<\/em> a conversation at a party once, between a casting agent and Halo voice director and composer Marty O&#8217;Donnell, but that&#8217;s as far as it got.<\/p>\n<p>The rumour Cruise nearly fronted Bungie&#8217;s game began a year ago, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/cbX-KobJj90\">long-time Master Chief voice actor and former radio DJ Steve Downes said on his YouTube channel<\/a>: &#8220;I believe Tom Cruise was actually mentioned as a possibility to do Master Chief.&#8221; The story goes that after the success of Halo 1, Microsoft insisted on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/halo-2\">Halo 2<\/a>, and apparently considered getting big-name actors for it.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Halo: Campaign Evolved - Official Cinematic Story Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4r4ywvts2pc?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/4r4ywvts2pc\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Halo: Campaign Evolved &#8211; Official Cinematic Story Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Halo: Campaign Evolved cinematic story trailer.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4r4ywvts2pc\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/gameinformer.com\/2026\/06\/17\/tom-cruise-and-julia-roberts-were-pitched-as-master-chief-and-cortana-for-halo-2\">a new interview with GameInformer<\/a>, O&#8217;Donnell has shed more light on the story, explaining that Microsoft &#8220;shipped&#8221; him to Hollywood parties because they&#8217;d seen a lot of anticipation for Halo 2, and O&#8217;Donnell had been considering widening the casting remit for the sequel anyway. It was at one of these parties a guy approached O&#8217;Donnell, put his arm around him and said: &#8220;Marty, you know, it&#8217;s time! This is a big deal. You&#8217;re in the big times now. You&#8217;ve gotta step everything up. We represent Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now, Tom Cruise was already a Bungie fan, believe it or not,&#8221; O&#8217;Donnell continued. &#8220;He had played Myth, so this wasn&#8217;t the first time we&#8217;d heard about Tom Cruise. It was this guy basically saying, &#8216;We should make this deal to get Tom Cruise to be Master Chief, and Julia Roberts to be Cortana in Halo 2.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Donnell&#8217;s response was performative. &#8220;I was like, &#8216;Wow that&#8217;s really cool! Yeah, thanks a lot,'&#8221; he said.  Inside, though, he was never really considering it: &#8220;I knew that would have ruined everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Donnell believed fans weren&#8217;t &#8220;blown away&#8221; by big stars but by a good game. &#8220;[Microsoft] wanted us to stay true to that relationship between us and the fans,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and if we just threw [in] Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts, who I would have had a blast working with them \u2013 if I could have done that to begin with, maybe that could have been cool &#8211; but there was no way that I could replace Jen Taylor and Steve Downes, because the fans already had a relationship with those voices, because they were Master Chief and Cortana.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just could not think of replacing that, so that was never really in the cards to be considered, but I like to dangle it over Jen and Steve every so often, like, &#8216;You know, I could have gotten Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise.&#8217; It&#8217;s just a fun story. It never went any further than that one conversation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Downes and Taylor have re-recorded their lines for this year&#8217;s remake of Halo 1 &#8211; Halo: Campaign Evolved &#8211; which Microsoft shared a longer look at during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/everything-announced-microsofts-xbox-games-showcase\">this year&#8217;s summer Xbox Showcase<\/a>. It looked very colourful and lighthearted so there was some scepticism after the show, but we were really <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/halo-campaign-evolved-hands-on\">pleasantly surprised by Halo: Campaign Evolved when we played it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise didn&#8217;t nearly voice Halo&#8217;s famous protagonist Master Chief, and Hollywood superstar Julia Roberts wasn&#8217;t nearly in Halo either. There <em>was<\/em> a conversation at a party once, between a casting agent and Halo voice director and composer Marty O&#8217;Donnell, but that&#8217;s as far as it got.<\/p>\n<p>The rumour Cruise nearly fronted Bungie&#8217;s game began a year ago, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/cbX-KobJj90\">long-time Master Chief voice actor and former radio DJ Steve Downes said on his YouTube channel<\/a>: &#8220;I believe Tom Cruise was actually mentioned as a possibility to do Master Chief.&#8221; The story goes that after the success of Halo 1, Microsoft insisted on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/halo-2\">Halo 2<\/a>, and apparently considered getting big-name actors for it.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Halo: Campaign Evolved - Official Cinematic Story Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4r4ywvts2pc?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/4r4ywvts2pc\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Halo: Campaign Evolved &#8211; Official Cinematic Story Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>Halo: Campaign Evolved cinematic story trailer.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4r4ywvts2pc\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/gameinformer.com\/2026\/06\/17\/tom-cruise-and-julia-roberts-were-pitched-as-master-chief-and-cortana-for-halo-2\">a new interview with GameInformer<\/a>, O&#8217;Donnell has shed more light on the story, explaining that Microsoft &#8220;shipped&#8221; him to Hollywood parties because they&#8217;d seen a lot of anticipation for Halo 2, and O&#8217;Donnell had been considering widening the casting remit for the sequel anyway. It was at one of these parties a guy approached O&#8217;Donnell, put his arm around him and said: &#8220;Marty, you know, it&#8217;s time! This is a big deal. You&#8217;re in the big times now. You&#8217;ve gotta step everything up. We represent Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now, Tom Cruise was already a Bungie fan, believe it or not,&#8221; O&#8217;Donnell continued. &#8220;He had played Myth, so this wasn&#8217;t the first time we&#8217;d heard about Tom Cruise. It was this guy basically saying, &#8216;We should make this deal to get Tom Cruise to be Master Chief, and Julia Roberts to be Cortana in Halo 2.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Donnell&#8217;s response was performative. &#8220;I was like, &#8216;Wow that&#8217;s really cool! Yeah, thanks a lot,'&#8221; he said.  Inside, though, he was never really considering it: &#8220;I knew that would have ruined everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Donnell believed fans weren&#8217;t &#8220;blown away&#8221; by big stars but by a good game. &#8220;[Microsoft] wanted us to stay true to that relationship between us and the fans,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and if we just threw [in] Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts, who I would have had a blast working with them \u2013 if I could have done that to begin with, maybe that could have been cool &#8211; but there was no way that I could replace Jen Taylor and Steve Downes, because the fans already had a relationship with those voices, because they were Master Chief and Cortana.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just could not think of replacing that, so that was never really in the cards to be considered, but I like to dangle it over Jen and Steve every so often, like, &#8216;You know, I could have gotten Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise.&#8217; It&#8217;s just a fun story. It never went any further than that one conversation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Downes and Taylor have re-recorded their lines for this year&#8217;s remake of Halo 1 &#8211; Halo: Campaign Evolved &#8211; which Microsoft shared a longer look at during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/everything-announced-microsofts-xbox-games-showcase\">this year&#8217;s summer Xbox Showcase<\/a>. It looked very colourful and lighthearted so there was some scepticism after the show, but we were really <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/halo-campaign-evolved-hands-on\">pleasantly surprised by Halo: Campaign Evolved when we played it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News Halo: Campaign Evolved No, Tom Cruise wasn&#8217;t nearly Halo&#8217;s Master Chief, and Julia Roberts wasn&#8217;t nearly in the series either &#8211; but there was this conversation at a party &#8220;You&#8217;re in the big times now. You&#8217;ve gotta step everything up.&#8221; Image credit: Eurogamer News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Published on June 18, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1997232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1997232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1997232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1997232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1997232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}