“You deserve the truth. The Enemy is at our gates. Their numbers are overwhelming. Any marine who makes this stand with us will not survive the day. For every moment that we hold the enemy at bay, more innocent people can escape. When they do, they can go forth and tell the story that you write today. You will be remembered,” says a voiceover in the season-two trailer of Paramount Plus' Halo, released Saturday at CCXP in São Paolo, Brazil.

Against those unfavorable odds, Master Chief John-117 (Pablo Schreiber) leads his team of elite Spartans against an alien threat known as the Covenant. While trying to fend off what seems like the inevitable, John also is searching for what he thinks is the key to humankind's salvation – or its extinction – the Halo.

Paramount announced during a CCXP panel that the show would return with two episodes on February 8.

Led by showrunner and executive producer David Wiener (Brave New World), the series takes place in the universe that first debuted in 2001 with the launch of Xbox's Halo. Besides Schreiber, it also stars Natascha McElhone (Californication) as Dr. Halsey, who also both serve as producers this season. Additional returning cast members include Jen Taylor (Halo game series, RWBY) as Cortana, Bokeem Woodbine (Fargo), Shabana Azmi (Fire), Natasha Culzac (The Witcher), Olive Gray (Half Moon Investigations), Yerin Ha (Reef Break), Bentley Kalu (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Kate Kennedy (Catastrophe), Charlie Murphy (Peaky Blinders) and Danny Sapani (Penny Dreadful).

New additions to the cast this season include Joseph Morgan (Vampire Diaries, The Originals) and Cristina Rodlo (No One Gets Out of Here Alive, The Homeless World Cup). Morgan joins the series as James Ackerson, a formidable intelligence operative who has spent his career climbing the ranks of the UNSC's secretive Office of Naval Intelligence. Rodlo is Talia Perez, a corporal specializing in linguistics for a UNSC Marine Corps communications unit and a relatively new recruit who has yet to see any real combat.

Halo is produced by Showtime in association with 343 Industries and Amblin Television. The second season of Halo is executive produced by David Wiener alongside Steven Spielberg, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey for Amblin Television. Kiki Wolfkill serves as executive producer for Xbox/343 Industries, with Otto Bathurst and Toby Leslie for One Big Picture and Gian Paolo Varani. The series is distributed internationally by Paramount Global Content Distribution.