Set in the late 1700s, during the years leading to the unification of the Hawaiian Islands, Chief of War is Apple TV+’s first Hawaiian-language series, and before the first line of dialogue was spoken, before the first canoe was carved or volcano erupted, Chief of War was already something rare: a story that had waited generations to be told.
Created by Jason Momoa and Thomas Paʻa Sibbett, Chief of War is a sweeping, Hawaiian-led epic that reclaims history, language, and cultural memory with a scope and soul unlike anything on television. We spoke with Momoa and Sibbett at length about the journey behind the series, and traveled to Hawaiʻi for the junket, where the cast, crew, and the land itself revealed just how personal this story truly is.
Filmed on sacred land, written in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, and anchored in the real-life journey of warrior Kaʻiana, Chief of War tells the story of a kingdom on the brink of unification and collapse. But more than that, it marks a return to identity, ancestral power, and a vision long denied the screen. This is the untold story behind the series. This is how it all came home.
Jason Momoa’s journey to bring Chief of War to life began more than a decade ago. The story had lived with him for years, introduced to him by his partner and developed alongside longtime collaborator Thomas Paʻa Sibbett. But even then, the timing wasn’t right. “Jason had the wherewithal to understand that his star power wasn’t big enough yet to give the attention a story like this needs,” Sibbett explains. “The truth is that I, as a storyteller and a producer at the time, wasn't ready either.”
Rather than force it into a premature pitch, the pair waited. They built their team, Jason, Sibbett, and director-producer Brian Mendoza, and methodically raised their profiles. “Our team... just worked at getting ourselves into a position where we could go to a place with confidence,” Sibbett says. “We also knew there was no precedent for a Hawaiian story.”
For Momoa, the moment came after his breakout roles in Game of Thrones and Aquaman gave him the clout to pitch passion projects. “I think when I was doing the first Dune, I pitched this to Apple. I'd done three seasons of See in Canada, and it went extremely well,” Momoa recalls. “They trusted me, so Thomas and I got to build the nine episodes. Having it be Hawaiian-written, doing all the research... it's f--king awesome, dude.
The trust was well placed. Chief of War, Apple TV+’s most ambitious series rooted in Pacific history, became a multi-year commitment and a cultural first. “There was no precedent,” Sibbett reiterates.
"We didn't know if the Hawaiian language is going to be something that people will sit through. We didn't know if the representation of our culture, in a way that is more accurate to our history, was something that people will take in."
Momoa adds: “This is probably going to be the most impactful thing that's ever f--king happened to me. I can't wait to bring it home and show my people.”
And with that, the gates opened. Not just for Chief of War, but for an entire wave of Pacific storytelling.
That wave was felt across the Pacific. For veteran actors like Cliff Curtis (Keoua) and Temuera Morrison (King Kahekili) who we spoke with when visiting Hawaiʻi’, Chief of War represented a historic milestone. “Hawaiʻi’s never been shown this way,” Curtis said. “Jason and Paʻa are telling their story. We’ve been brought in as Māori to support that, to help bring our ancestral bloodlines together through Chief of War.”
“We’re just in a beautiful place now,” Morrison added. “Polynesia will celebrate tonight. We’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
The ensemble cast features a wide range of Indigenous actors from across the Pacific, from seasoned icons to first-time performers, all telling the story from within.
Kaʻiana: Rebel, Warrior, Icon
Who Is Kaʻiana? The Real Warrior Behind Chief of War
Every epic needs a compelling figure at its core. For Chief of War, that figure is Kaʻiana, a historical warrior who walked a path between royalty, rebellion, and tragedy. Jason Momoa describes him as “one of the first Hawaiians to see the world,” a voyager who traveled as far as China, the Philippines, and Alaska before returning home with knowledge and warning signs of what was coming.
“He comes back going like, ‘They're coming,’” Momoa explains. “He also gets to see people enslaved, and he was a war general, so he understood what was at stake.” But Kaʻiana’s wisdom and experience made him an outsider. His worldview was shaped by exposure to sickness, suffering, and colonial systems, and when he returned to Hawaiʻi, he no longer saw it the same way. “He's plagued by the outside world,” Momoa says. “No one really sees it the way he does, except for this one woman.”
“He’s poisoned by the outside world,” Momoa said when we spoke to him again in Hawaiʻi. “He wants to protect everyone here, but he can never return to what he was. So if he has to be the cancer that forces people to act, then so be it”
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