When witnessing the savage splendor of Apple TV+’s historical epic, Chief of War, there’s no need to ponder why it’s taken so long for the late 18th century tale of King Kamehameha I and his unification of the Hawaiian Islands to be depicted in a TV show, simply sit back and relish the compelling magic of this $340 million spectacle, which airs its season finale this Friday on September 19, 2025.
Created, executive produced, and co-written by Hawaii-born international celebrity Jason Momoa (Games of Thrones, Justice League, Dune) and told via an authentic indigenous lens, this stunning paradise-set saga depicts the exploits of real-life Kauaʻi chieftain Ka’iana.
The noble warrior played a pivotal role in trying to aid Kamehameha I to bring the Hawaiian kingdom together under one wise ruler. But the ensuing battle between four feuding island tribes was not without considerable bloodshed and the ever-present specter of European colonization.
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It took us a year to write the whole thing.
Jason Momoa
“This is about as big as it gets for me,” Momoa tells TechRadar on how this project came to light. “For me personally, I just think my career needed to be in the right place because it’s such an epic tale that I don’t think anyone would have invested in me and made something of this size. It got greenlit off of a pitch and a phone call while I was working on Dune, the first one.”
Momoa conceived and wrote Chief of War with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom screenwriter Thomas Paʻa Sibbett and together they endeavored to deliver a detailed and realistic account of how Hawaii struggled to retain traditions in an increasingly modernized world closing in on them.
“It took us a year to write the whole thing,” he notes. “It was the right time, the right place, the right person, where I was in my career and finding our Kamehameha. I don’t think anyone could have done it like Kaina Makua.
“I’m happy how it unfolded. If it had been earlier, it would have been handled completely different. There would have been a lot more people in charge and being able to protect our culture and be established in our culture and meet the right people. For whatever it is and how it was chosen and whatever gods made it happen, I’m very thankful that it did. It’s in the perfect place at the right time.”
I’m really all for people to see episodes 8 and 9.
Jason Momoa
For the popular magnetic actor, Chief of War and its extraordinary production is a homecoming of sorts for the portion that was shot in the Hawaiian Islands.
“There’s people on this production that I’ve been with since I was 19. People that I worked with on Baywatch Hawaii that were cast members. That was my start of acting and I fell in love, but the makeup artists and grips and people in Hawaii that I’ve worked with since the beginning, we’ve come so far and they’re just so proud to see me come back and make something like this and bring it home. It’s really the best of the best of people I’ve worked with, getting to be one of the creators, to co-write it, to direct, and have a pretty big say in a lot of the stuff.
“At the end of the day I love being accountable. Sometimes when you’re an actor you do your job and you go home and you did the best you could and it’ll turn out the way it does because there’s so many other people. Having a say, I’d rather be judged that way and put your heart into it. I’m really all for people to see episodes 8 and 9. The cast is insane. I’m so proud of them.”
The transportive 9-episode series filmed mostly in New Zealand also stars Luciane Buchanan, Temuera Morrison, Te Ao o Hinepehinga, Cliff Curtis, Kaina Makua, Moses Goods, Siua Ikale’o, Brandon Finn, James Udom, Mainei Kinimaka, and Te Kohe Tuhaka.
“This native language, Ōlelo Hawaiʻi, there was only a small percentage of the cast that actually speaks it fluently. It’s very challenging and everyone was just embracing it and learning it. I think I was the shittiest one on the show.”
In his fierce and nuanced portrayal of Ka’iana, one of the first Hawaiians to travel abroad and return to his native soil, Jason Momoa drew from several sources and often struggled with understanding his motivations as historical events erupted.
The authenticity of this whole thing was at the forefront for Apple, not just for Thomas and I, but for everyone.
Jason Momoa
“The authenticity of this whole thing was at the forefront for Apple, not just for Thomas and I, but for everyone,” he reveals. “For us, we’re not going back home. If we don’t get this right, we don’t get to come home. This is our life.
“We brought on a lot of advisors and were really with our community. We dug as much as we can for Ka’iana, I first found out about him through Thomas, because he’s a graduate in Hawaiian studies. But there’s a lot of missing moments and you’ll see those throughout the whole piece. There’s a lot of things where as an actor I’m trying to fill the gaps and there are things I didn’t necessarily agree with.
“You have to really sympathize and send your imagination to where he was at. What gossip was being said about him? His wife stayed and he left. Leaving Hawaii and seeing the world for the first time and seeing how people are treated. He’s tainted by that world and to come back and deal with talk about gods. There are no gods out there. They have no idea what’s coming.”
This ambitious creative enterprise had to be the most physically and mentally demanding project Momoa has undertaken in his career so far, and he’s emerged from the gratifying experience with renewed vigor for the filmmaking process, combat prowess, and his craft.
“There’s many men like Ali’i Minor who guided me through the Lua, our fighting style,” Momoa recalls. “That’s something that they don’t teach and you have to be invited into. I feel like there’s a lot of savage stuff that I learned and this is all before any metal came to the islands,” Momoa says.
“What a fun thing to explore. This end battle scene on the lava field is intense. That’s the first time any gun was brought there. That warrior style of breaking or dislocating arms and the tearing and ripping of muscle, is pretty unbelievable.
“To summon your ancestors and get yourself into this state of mind, when I’d watch them, you can’t crash course a lifetime of learning that. When you actually get to see Temuera [Morrison] do that it’s something beautiful. He’s an amazing man.”
Chief of War charges into its season finale on Apple TV+ on September 19, 2025.
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