Chief of War slays it

In the early 19th century, the people of the islands that now make up the state of Hawaii were a group who, though they may have shared many language and cultural practices, were politically disparate. Each island was ruled over by a different chief, divided into districts and often at war with its neighbours.

The first contact between the natives of these Polynesian islands and Europeans didn't ended well for the Western visitors — explorer Captain James Cook was killed when he foolishly attempted to kidnap Maui chief Kalaniʻōpuʻu in 1779. The next two decades would see continued war and tension between the different islands before they were finally unified into the kingdom of Hawaii under the leadership of Kamehameha I in 1810, a relatively peaceful state of affairs that would last until 1893 when rapacious American and European businessmen conspired to overthrow the monarchy, paving the way for the annexation of Hawaii by the US in 1898.

In the 20th century, Hawaii was best known first as the home of the Pearl Harbor navy base, bombed by the Japanese in 1941, which pushed America into World War 2. Then it was renowned as a post-war surfers' paradise and the home of TV's mustachioed detective Magnum PI and after that, as a White Lotus luxury resort destination for tourists from the mainland.

For the last quarter century, telling the story of his homeland’s brutal, politically tense and proud pre-US history has been the passion project of one of Hawaii’s most famous and imposingly built sons. Joseph Jayson Namakaeha Momoa was born in Honolulu in 1979 and has, since he made his on-screen debut as part of the cast of Baywatch: Hawaii in 1999, established himself as one of the world’s most idolised and recognisable brick-shithouse built, grizzled, manly men in roles such as Dothraki chief Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones, the DC Universe’s sea-dwelling Aquaman and as Garrett in this year’s unexpected saviour of the future of theatre movies, the box-office smashing A Minecraft Movie.

As his rise to the pinnacle of Hollywood has steadily steamed ever upwards, Momoa and his friend and fellow Hawaiian Thomas Pa’a Sibbet had quietly been planning to use Momoa’s star power to get them to the point where they'd be given the green light by a major studio to make a predominantly Hawaiian language drama set in the tumultuous period of the years leading to unification. As Sibbet recently told GQ magazine, “We knew that to pull off something like this, Jason needed to bring his star power up, and I needed to prove myself as a writer/creator too. So, we stayed together, we worked on all kinds of projects together, but in the end, it was all to get us to this place where we could tell this story.”

That dedication has paid off handsomely as the pair’s epic, violent and emotionally sweeping drama series, Chief of War, lands on Apple TV+ this week. Co-written by Momoa and Sibbet, produced by Momoa and starring the muscle-bulging 1.93m, long-haired tattooed giant, the series traces the battle to unify the islands from a carefully and respectfully observed indigenous perspective. It takes Hawaii’s history back from its traditionally colonial outsider lens and reframes the narrative from the perspective of those who lived it.

In this regard Chief of War’s closest relative on screen is South Africa’s own recent popular hit Shaka iLembe, which likewise creates epic indigenous language drama in its decolonised retelling of the story of the legendary Zulu king’s unification of his kingdom in the 19th century from the perspective of Zulu society.

Momoa plays real-life figure Ka’aina, a chief of war who's escaped his home island with his family and is initially reticent to fulfil his role as a fighter until his island’s king Kahekili (Temuera Morrison) recalls him and lures him back into service with a tale of a vision that he'll be the prophesied leader of a united Hawaii, and that his chief of war is needed to make this come true. When Ka’aina and his clan realise too late that Kahekili is no prophesied unifier but, instead, a power-hungry, mad and bloodlust-infected tyrant, their lives are upended as the islands find themselves embroiled in brutal war and Ka’aina, on the run from the mad king’s forces, finds himself separated from his loved ones and on a colonial ship bound for distant western shores. As he battles his way home, Ka’aina must fulfil his destiny, become the chief of war to a true unifying king and warn his people against the dangers of impending colonial interest in their islands that will ultimately change their lives and their world irrevocably.

Turn on the subtitles, grab the edge of your seat and watch as a thong-sporting Momoa dives headlong into his thrilling and epic historical passion project that delivers on its promise to tell Hawaii’s story in the voice of Hawaiians while also proving to be a solidly engaging drama with plenty of bloody battles, breathtaking landscapes and big, stirring emotional tension. As Momoa told GQ: “It's taken us a long time, but I needed to wait until my career was in the right moment, and I needed to wait until we saved cinema with Minecraft to come back and just fucking kill it, bro! You know? And make the Hawaiian story. It's been 25 years in the making to be able to pull off something like this, and it’s just really exciting.”

• Chief of War is streaming on Apple TV +