Jason Momoa’s passion project “Chief of War” begins streaming Friday, and he hopes its success will lead to Apple TV+ extending the miniseries for additional seasons and increase government support for film and television production in Hawaii.
The nine-part epic miniseries, set during Hawaii’s wars of unification in the last decades of the 18th century, makes its global debut on Momoa’s birthday on Friday. The first two episodes will air on Friday, and new episodes will follow each Friday through Sept. 19.
“Once people see it, I think it’s going to kick down the door and really inspire the next operation (here),” said Momoa. “In whatever we miss or fall short of, let it inspire the next generation (of Hawaii filmmakers) to rise above and be better than us.”
Momoa added that the Hawaii film industry must have year-in, year-out government support if Hawaii is going to survive as a place where movies and television series are made.
“We should be backed by the government (Hawaii),” he said. “We should be supported here, and that is the support that I’m gonna pray that we get for all these stories being told, because that’s what it’s all about, a lot more help for our children and the next generation (of filmmakers).”
“Chief of War” has become a rallying cry for some of the leaders of the Hawai‘i Film Alliance, which recently organized to fight for improved state incentives following a bruising legislative session earlier this year.
Vince Keala Lucero, a Native Hawaiian filmmaker and camera operator who co-founded Co Creative Studios, was motivated to join the alliance because of the slump here in shooting feature films and major television, including “Chief of War,” which hit a Hawaii tax credit cap causing much of the series to film in New Zealand.
“It was a total shame,” Lucero said. “Because if we didn’t have a cap, it would have been here and would have spent all those millions here.”
Kenneth Smith, a teamster with Local 996, the film industry’s transporters, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser at a press conference at the state Capitol on May 19 that the decline in Hawaii’s film industry has left him without steady union transportation work since March 2024, and has hurt other unions — electrical and carpenters — and other vendors.
“Whatever is happening is shutting us down. We cannot feed our families,” Smith said. “You can only file unemployment for so long. I’ve been doing part-time work for the tour industry as a contractor, but it’s not nearly the (same) amount of money.”
Jimmy Tokioka, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, said since the production of “Chief of War,” Gov. Josh Green “is putting additional efforts into supporting the industry, and part of that will include funding for the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority for film production tourism support.”
Tokioka said $500,000 of HTA’s $63 million budget has been reallocated this year to provide film marketing and that Green is expected to put more resources into next year’s HTA budget. He said DBEDT also plans to support additional legislation to strengthen Hawaii’s film industry.
“We have no productions happening right now in Hawaii,” Tokioka said. “We lost ‘Rescue: HI-Surf,’ we lost ‘NCIS’ — it’s two years now — so we need to attract productions. They are an economic stimulus.”
Sen. Lynn DeCoite (D, East Maui-Upcountry-Molokai-Lanai-Kahoolawe), chair of the Senate Economic Development and Tourism Committee, told the Star-Advertiser in a phone interview that she was motivated to introduce Senate Bill 732 this year partly because of the difficulties that “Chief of War” had encountered, but that it died in conference because “we could not get the support of the House.”
DeCoite said the bill’s intent was to create the Island Film and Media Production Investment Fund, promote the tax credit and expand tax incentives for hiring local workers and extend support to streaming platforms such as Netflix and Hulu. She said more work needs to be done to help all legislators understand the economic importance of Hawaii’s film industry.
“When I asked what does it cost me to stream a one-hour during prime time, you are talking about $100 million. If I had to buy that one hour, and when we are streaming worldwide, I can only imagine what that marketing power is,” she said, adding that she plans to introduce film industry legislation next year too.
DeCoite said that she is excited about the opportunity to begin streaming “Chief of War,” which she said provides free marketing for Hawaii as a destination and creates an opportunity for those who watch to learn about Hawaiian culture in an authentic way.
She said that the “Native Hawaiian cultural perspective of Jason guys telling the story versus somebody else telling the story” is priceless, and given the amount of local people, including Native Hawaiians, involved in Hawaii’s film industry, “the film industry should be at the top and forefront of the Legislature.”
DeCoite said she visited the set of “Chief of War” while it was shooting on Hawaii island and in New Zealand, and recounted a chicken-skin moment from Hawaii island that illustrates the importance of keeping local productions here.
“The day that they opened and shot the first scene on the Big Island, the volcano erupted, so what you’ll see is some of the shots with no filter whatsoever, it’s a clean shoot without any alterations or misrepresentations,” she said. “What I also like about ‘Chief of War’ is that when they went into these communities, they asked to come.”
Kanaka connections
Momoa put the strength of his entire career and his contacts as a star into navigating new territory as the steersman of “Chief of War” — a project about Native Hawaiians that was written, produced and directed by Native Hawaiians and cast some Native Hawaiians like himself in roles where they had ancestral ties to the characters.
The story takes place in the tumultuous decades that followed Capt. James Cook’s “discovery” of Hawaii for the outside world in 1778. Kauai, Oahu, Maui and the Big Island were separate kingdoms, ruled by rival chiefs who, in some cases, came from the same bloodlines, and who considered themselves entitled to their rivals’ kingdoms.
The Honolulu-born Momoa, who stars in “Chief of War,” and another Hawaiian creative, Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett, share credits as the project’s co-creators, co-writers and co-executive producers.
“A lot of people shoot in Hawaii, but they don’t shoot Hawaiian stories,” Momoa told the Star-Advertiser in a telephone interview leading up to the “Chief of War” world premiere on July 18 at Ko Olina Beach Park. “We need to have more of those stories, because they’re so important.
“I needed to wait till my career was big enough where people would watch it, where we could be able to make it on a platform like this,” he said.“I needed to be able to have a company like Apple trust me to not only write, produce, direct and act, (but also) to bring a bunch of actors together that don’t necessarily have big names (to) make something on this level.”
Momoa stars as Ka‘iana, the titular “chief of war” of the story, who must find his way among the demands of the rival chiefs, their conflicting ambitions and the personal obligations he has inherited from the previous generation. Ka‘iana finds himself entangled in what he decides is an unjust war. He becomes the first alii to see the larger world and the seemingly unlimited na haole (non-Hawaiians) who live there and who will be coming to Hawaii.
“What we’re trying to do is show a little bit of each (of these stories) to get people excited about what really happened here,” Momoa said.“Ka‘iana is a man who’s a reluctant war chief who has seen too much, and has PTSD from his own experience with his father.”
Although Momoa’s credits include many complex and engaging characters, the character of Ka‘iana became especially meaningful for him when he discovered while the researching the project that he is a descendant of the Ka‘iana line.
“I can’t even explain what it feels like,” Momoa exclaimed. “It’s like the chicken skin that your ancestors have come down, man. Like it’s, it’s insane!”
The series features a predominantly Polynesian cast led by Momoa alongside Luciane Buchanan, Temuera Morrison, Te Ao o Hinepehinga, Cliff Curtis, newcomer Kaina Makua, Moses Goods, Siua Ikale‘o, Brandon Finn, James Udom, Mainei Kinimaka, Te Kohe Tuhaka and Benjamin Hoetjes, according to a media release from Apple TV+.
Goods has a major supporting role as Moku (known historically as Ke‘eaumoku), a Hawaii chief who is one of Kamehameha’s closest allies and also the father of Ka‘ahumanu, the woman recognized in history as Kamehameha’s favorite wife.
“It’s a funny thing that the alii that I’m playing is one of the few that I actually am not connected to through blood,” Goods said recently. “I’m from Maui, from the Pi‘ilani lineage. He’s a high chief of Maui. A lot of those alii actually descend from Pi‘ilani … but my character is not. So, yes, I’m connected by blood to a lot of those alii, except for the one that I’m playing.”
Sibbett emphasized the commitment to cultural authenticity that he, Momoa and the rest of the team — such as Hawaii-based producers Brian Keaulana and Angie Laprete, and costume designer Caroline Eselin, who communicated constantly with the Edith Kanaka‘ole Foundation and Kaumakaiwa Kanaka‘ole — brought to the project.
He said that he hopes that many people who come to see Momoa in action are inspired to learn more about Hawaiian history and culture.
“Everything you see can be traced back to something real. I didn’t want audiences to watch and to be like, ‘Oh, that was so cool. But clearly, that’s Hollywood. Who the hell swims with a shark?’” Sibbett said.
“We can point to a lot of moolelo (stories), we can even read firsthand accounts in the 1800s of people saying they’ve seen Hawaiians swim with sharks the way cowboys ride horses, ” he said. “We wanted to be able to point the finger and say, ‘Look, all this stuff that you see, it’s all researchable. It’s all stuff that you can find.’ We hope that it generates that kind of interest in looking at our history and our stories.”
•••
Star-Advertiser reporter Allison Schaefers contributed to this story.
Source: The Garden Island