Halo Fans Likely Haven't Seen the End of the Forerunners

The Halo franchise has no shortage of villains. The most iconic Halo foe, the Covenant, has been in the series since its debut in 2001, and though the name of the overarching organization has now changed, the Banished contains all the same alien species fans have come to love over the years, including the adorably wimpish Grunts, lethal Elites, and hulking Brutes. But there's one species integral to Halo's lore that's neither friend nor foe, and that's the Forerunners.

A mysterious presence throughout the Halo franchise, the Forerunners are often only discussed in passing by Cortana or one of the Prophets. While they may not actually appear physically in the franchise in full force, the Forerunners are at the very center of Halo's universe, and there's simply no way the future of the Halo franchise can ignore them.

Halo Can't Easily Escape the Forerunners

In the Halo universe, an empire stretched across the Milky Way galaxy 100,000 years ago. At the very head of this empire were the Forerunners, an ancient race with supreme technological dominance. The Forerunners spent years spreading their technology across the galaxy, creating shield worlds, tombs, arrays, and a plethora of other highly-advanced structures. Among these structures were the Halo rings.

Upon discovering a parasitic species known as The Flood, and seeing it continue to spread through the galaxy, the Forerunners decided to put a drastic plan into action. The Forerunners created a monumental shipyard known as the Ark, where its Sentinels could produce the ringworlds known as Halos. In total, there were 12 Halo rings at first, and once lined up, these Halo rings would send out a galaxy-wide shockwave that would eradicate all life in its path. But before firing the rings, the Forerunners copied the DNA of all known living species, and set them to be awakened once The Flood had been wiped out. Before being wiped out, the Forerunners also named humanity as its successor, granting it the Mantle of Responsibility, and hoping that it would rid the galaxy of The Flood should it return.

Simply put, there is no Halo universe without the Forerunners. The Forerunners are at the very heart of every element of Halo's story. Without the Forerunners, there would be no ancient technology for the Covenant to discover, no reason for them to come into contact with humanity, and no reason for the human-Covenant war to ever begin. Without the Forerunners, the actual Halo rings simply wouldn't exist. The Forerunners are Halo, and there's no feasible way the franchise can forget about that.

For a while, 343 Industries has tried to move past the Forerunner saga by putting its own twist on these ancestors. While Halo 4 embraced the precursor species more than ever before, Halo 5: Guardians chose to pull away a little, reframing the species as a warmongering one with powerful weapons. Halo Infinite continues to move away from Bungie's original take on the Forerunners, with a new species, the Xalayn, emerging as the primary threat.

If Halo Infinite's post-credits scene is anything to go by, then it seems like 343 Industries wants to keep moving the Halo franchise towards this new threat, and its potential team-up with The Banished. While moving away from the Forerunner saga isn't necessarily a bad idea, the Halo franchise cannot just forget about the Forerunners altogether and pretend they don't exist. After all, if there's any mention of a Halo ring, ancient artifacts or technology, then the Forerunners are going to be tied to it.