Actor Jason Momoa writes and stars in "Chief of War," a new historical drama about the unification of the Hawaiian Islands. The show will stream on Apple TV+ starting Aug. 1.
Momoa is arguably the most famous actor of Hawaiian descent in the world right now. He stars in "A Minecraft Movie," which is the highest-grossing movie in the U.S. so far this year.
And Momoa does get top billing in the acting credits for "Chief of War" — but he is not King Kamehameha.
The protagonist of "Chief of War" is actually Kaʻiana, a warrior and aliʻi.
Thomas Paʻa Sibbett is the show's co-creator, executive producer and head writer. He has collaborated with Momoa on several movies, including "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," "Braven," and "The Last Manhunt."
Sibbett said the concept started as a movie. He and Momoa talked early on about whether it would tell the story of Kamehameha.
"I'll be honest, I didn't feel equipped to do that," Sibbett told HPR. "Actually, I just kind of thought it wasn't a great idea altogether. Not because the story isn't amazing, not because it isn't compelling, but because with that one, you do run the risk of being completely commercial and not true to what Hawaiians believe should happen.
"And I'm not speaking to the divisiveness of kanaka, but everybody, in some way or another, feels like their family is connected to that story," he said. "And I felt like, no matter what I did, no matter how we chose to build it, that it just would make more people unhappy than it would be happy."
Momoa also did not think he was the right person to play Kamehameha. But Sibbett said a day after their decision, a light went off in his head on how they could tell the story of unification.
"The perfect character would be Kaʻiana because he was a world traveler, you know, the first Hawaiian chief to travel and to see the outside world," Sibbett said. "We have accounts of him, but, you know, it's not a story that as beloved, so that I'm able to play up some of his flaws, or I'm able to kind of place him in situations that allow us to realistically discuss Kamehameha, discuss Kaʻahumanu, discuss some of these people without directly hitting them. You know what I mean? And it was just a way to sort of protect the mana of our aliʻi in a way that could be mindful."
Who plays Kamehameha?
Sibbett said the casting of Kamehameha was a huge concern for them, and they needed to be thoughtful on who they chose to play Hawaiʻi's most famous monarch.
He said he always pictured Kamehameha as a farmer because, after unifying the Hawaiian Islands, "he was just this wonderful nurturer of life and turned everybody to agriculture."
He also found in his research that Kamehameha was at some point a reluctant leader.
"I wanted to catch him there. I wanted to focus in on him there, where he was at," Sibbett said. "I always pictured Kamehameha, at the heart of him, that he was a farmer. And that is the character that we wrote, that is the character that we pushed, and that is the character that we wanted to find. And we found him in Kaina Makua. Like with no question, no doubt — and I cannot wait for the Hawaiʻi audience to see him."
Kaina Makua is a kalo farmer on Kauaʻi. He has no other acting credits.
Momoa had actually met Makua on a trip to Kauaʻi years ago. At the time, he sent Sibbett a photo suggesting they consider him for the role.
Two years after that, production on "Chief of War" ramped up, and they held auditions.
One of the show's cultural advisers told Sibbett to talk to Makua, and it clicked with the writer that this was the same person Momoa had mentioned years ago.
Sibbett found Makua to be a perfect fit for the role of Kamehameha that he wrote.
"I promise you, he is fantastic," Sibbett said. "Because he had the one thing — he is Hawaiian at the core. That is just who he is. Not as a kalo farmer, but as everything. He helps sustain his community. He turns the people to agriculture. He brings, you know, kids into the loʻi. They train, they learn. They're out in the ocean. They paddle. We couldn't have found someone who lives it like Kaina does."
*Spoiler Alert*
Hōʻailona is a sign or a symbol, sometimes an omen.
"There are accounts where people could recognize the chief, whether you knew what he looked like or not, because he'd be standing under an arching rainbow," Sibbett said.
In Kamehameha's introductory scene in "Chief of War," he emerges from the ocean carrying a boulder on his shoulder — and a rainbow appears over his head.
"We didn't plan that, do you know what I mean? That's not a VFX shot. Like, Kaina is standing underneath the rainbow," Sibbett said. "And it blew my... like, I was just in my Hawaiian moment, you know, chicken skin, everything. And I'm just like, God, you guys see that? Like, do you know what that means? That, for us, that is hōʻailona. So here we are running, quote, unquote, what people would call a Hollywood production to make this show, and we have these beautiful ... many wonderful and truly impactful hōʻailona to let us know that at least we were, you know, we were doing our best effort to create something Hawaiian, and we were given hōʻailona to know that we were doing the right thing.
"'Cuz seeing Kaina under that rainbow just freaked me out, man. It just freaked me out, 'cuz, here we are trying to share the story, you know, and Kamehameha is a part of the story, and in our intro to that character, a rainbow arced above his head. You know, that's not fabricated. We did not do that. It was there. That it was there and he was right under it. I'm like, 'Oh, wow,' you know what I mean, like, wonderful, wonderful moment," Sibbett said.
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