Halo's Unseen Future: The Endless Finally Get a Full Look

Halo's lore has taken a bittersweet turn. Halo Studios, formerly 343 Industries, is keeping a small crew to maintain existing games like Halo: Campaign Evolved, while the next entry goes to a new team under Activision. The studio's 268 layoffs were the bulk of its staff. Before the lore side of the operation wound down, community writer Alex Wakeford published the last issue of his Canon Fodder blog, and it reads partly as a farewell gift showing where the series might have gone.

The biggest reveal is the first full look at the Endless, a faction teased in Halo Infinite through the Harbinger, an advanced alien held on Zeta Halo by the Forerunners. Wakeford calls them the Xalanyn, children of Abaddon, but offers little explanation beyond the image itself, which he says is meant to spark fan theories. The designs vary a lot. Some members are roughly humanoid, while others look closer to sea creatures. Each one stands beside a smaller creature that echoes its appearance, and the Harbinger's companion is the Skimmer, the enemy type players met in Infinite.

That pairing suggests the Endless were meant to fill the role the Covenant once played, with each member supplying a lesser enemy for Master Chief to fight. The image also includes an Engineer next to a strikingly similar Endless, which hints that the Engineers were created by or linked to this race. It is a substantial claim for a series that has relied on the Engineers for years, and it leaves a lot of room for speculation.

Unfortunately, this may be the only look fans get. Halo insider Rebs Gaming reports that no one at Halo Studios is currently involved in Activision's new Halo, which raises the possibility that the Endless will never be used. Rebs also says the Activision project is not a direct sequel to Halo Infinite but will not retcon any established canon, so the work could be shelved without contradicting what came before.

The timing fits a wider pattern. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has pushed big franchises to the forefront as part of an "Xbox reset" that has also brought widespread layoffs, cancelled games, and studio divestitures. For Halo fans, the Endless are a glimpse of a future that now looks unlikely to arrive.