Hollywood star Tom Cruise never really came close to providing the voice for Halo’s well-known protagonist, Master Chief, and Hollywood icon Julia Roberts likewise wasn’t involved with Halo. There was once a conversation at a party—between a casting representative and Halo voice director and composer Marty O’Donnell—but beyond that, it never went further.
The rumour that Cruise was almost the face of Bungie’s title began roughly a year ago, when longtime Master Chief voice actor and former radio host Steve Downes brought it up on his YouTube channel: “I believe Tom Cruise was actually brought up as a possibility to portray Master Chief.” According to the account, after Halo 1’s success, Microsoft pushed for Halo 2 and may have even weighed the idea of involving famous performers for the role.
In a recent interview with GameInformer, O’Donnell added more context to the story. He noted that, given the level of excitement surrounding Halo 2, Microsoft “sent” him to Hollywood events, and he was already thinking about broadening the casting approach for the sequel. At one of those events, a man approached O’Donnell, leaned in with an arm around him, and said: “Marty, you know, it’s time! This is a major opportunity. You’re in the big league now. You need to elevate everything. We represent Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise.”
“And now, believe it or not, Tom Cruise was already a fan of Bungie,” O’Donnell continued. “He’d played Myth, so this wasn’t the first time we’d heard about him. It was basically this suggestion: ‘Let’s make a deal to cast Tom Cruise as Master Chief, and Julia Roberts as Cortana in Halo 2.’
O’Donnell’s response was pure theater. “I was like, ‘Wow, that’s really awesome! Yeah, thank you very much,’” he said. But in his own mind, he never seriously entertained it: “I knew that would have wrecked everything.”
O’Donnell believed that players weren’t “blown away” by celebrity cameos—they were impressed by the strength of the game. “[Microsoft] wanted us to keep that connection with the fans,” he explained. “And if you just inserted [in] Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts—people I would have loved to work with, if I’d been able to—it might have sounded exciting. Still, there was no way I could replace Jen Taylor and Steve Downes, because the audience had already built that link. Those voices are Master Chief and Cortana.
“I couldn’t picture swapping that out, so it was never truly on the table. Still, I like to tease Jen and Steve now and then, saying, ‘You know, I could have brought in Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise.’ It’s just a funny story. It never went beyond that one conversation.”
Downes and Taylor have re-recorded their lines for this year’s remake of Halo 1—Halo: Campaign Evolved—which Microsoft highlighted in more detail during this year’s summer Xbox Event. The presentation looked lively and upbeat, so there was some uncertainty afterward, but once we actually played Halo: Campaign Evolved, we were genuinely and pleasantly surprised.