“Perfect place at the right time”: Jason Momoa on Chief of War’s long journey and epic Season finale

Chief of War debuted as an epic historical drama revealing a hidden chapter of Hawaiian history. The nine-episode series, which debuted on Apple TV+, revolves around the warrior-chief Kaʻiana (Jason Momoa) as he navigates the brutal rivalries between Hawai‘i’s four major kingdoms: Hawaiʻi, Maui, Oʻahu, and Kauaʻi.

The story follows Kaʻiana’s journeys abroad and homecoming, as well as the moral, political, and cultural chaos that precedes the islands’ unification by Kamehameha I. With Hawaiian subtitles and a largely Polynesian cast, Chief of War is spectacle, tradition, and realism.

Co-directed by Justin Chon, Anders Engström, Brian Andrew Mendoza, and Momoa himself (who also directs the finale), Chief of War presents its narrative with epic visual grandeur, intricate cultural specificity, and ruthless violence.

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Chief of War: What Jason Momoa said about the journey and Episodes 8 and 9

For Jason Momoa, getting to bring Chief of War to life on screen was never going to be just another acting gig; it was a creative crusade on every level that required years of planning and a perfect storm of personal and professional milestones. In an interview with TechRadar, he revealed:

"I’m happy how it unfolded. 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.”

Kaʻiana’s odyssey is a reflection of the upheaval of a world in flux. He was born into Hawaiian nobility and later became an aliʻi, a chief of the highest rank when the islands were ruled by four separate monarchs. Those rivalries erupted into war, transforming the archipelago as Kamehameha I shaped an audacious vision to bring all the islands under one rule.

Chief of War puts Kaʻiana in the heart of that fragile dream. Once a trusted confidant of Kamehameha, he bears the crushing weight of having to advocate for and question this vision of unity, even as his world crumbles around him. Momoa co-created the series with longtime collaborator Thomas Paʻa Sibbett, and the two immersed themselves in every aspect of the nine-episode saga, collaborating closely with cultural advisors to maintain the story’s authenticity.

Momoa said the show could not have existed had it been attempted earlier in his career. He opened up:

“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."

This timing enabled him to write and act, as well as to direct and influence the vision of the series. He added:

"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.

Episodes 8 and 9 are the apex of Chief of War. TechRadar reported that Momoa directs the finale, staging a massive lava field battle sequence that combines emotional tragedy and visceral warfare. The eruptions of real volcanoes Mauna Loa and Kilauea during filming contributed to the surreal grandiosity of the experience, something Momoa declared as:

“Probably the highlight of my career.”

The emotional core of the final chapters also weighed heavily on him. In the eighth episode, Kaʻiana is reeling from personal tragedy, his younger brother having been murdered, and political alliances are crumbling around him. Momoa explained further:

“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. There are no gods out there. They have no idea what’s coming.”

The internal struggle, Momoa said, is what makes Kaʻiana so tragically complex, making him face questions of loyalty, betrayal, and destiny as the fight for Hawaiʻi teeters on the edge. Momoa believes that in Episodes 8 and 9 Chief of War reveals its true heart, not just a historical spectacle, but a confrontation with identity and legacy.

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Chief of War: The story behind the Apple TV+ epic

The center of Chief of War is its respect for a transformative but seldom portrayed period in Hawaiian history, when the islands teetered between consolidation and chaos. The series, set between 1782 and 1810, follows the trajectory of Kaʻiana, a Hawaiian nobleman whose life becomes deeply intertwined with the islands’ efforts to become a single kingdom. With him, the series descends into an era of unstable alliances, princely blood feuds, and the nascent influence of Europe.

By situating its grand battle sequences in the context of this intensely human reckoning, Chief of War makes history into experience. It casts Kaʻiana not just as a warrior but as a man caught between the ancestral gods that shaped him and the contemporary world poised to obliterate them. That conflict is felt in every frame of the series, making its spectacle something far more personal, a narrative about finding a place, about what’s left behind, and the dangerous price of trying to build a future without holding onto the past.