The nine-episode series “Chief of War” is streaming now on Apple TV+. It's based on true events beginning in the late 1700s and tells the story of the warrior Kaʻiana, played by Jason Momoa. It also follows the rise of King Kamehameha I as he moves to unify the islands.
Two companies that track movie and TV streaming put “Chief of War” in the Top 10 of streaming series. The company JustWatch put it at No. 3 in its latest release. On the review website Rotten Tomatoes, the show has a 93% positive rating, and locally, of course, it is the buzz.
The story itself is rich in history and told with some dramatic license — a groundbreaking project in a number of ways, including the work of Native Hawaiians and Polynesians on both sides of the camera, in the cast and on the production crew, starting, of course with Momoa. The phrase “passion project” is often used for this series.
Hawaiʻi Public Radio is tracking the series, episode by episode, with a limited-release podcast called “Feathers and Fire.” The Conversation was joined by the podcast's hosts and writers: HPR Director of Programming and Content Development Russell Subiono and University of Hawaiʻi Hawaiian studies instructor Mehana Makaʻinaʻi.
Interview highlights
On why "Chief of War" is an important series
RUSSELL SUBIONO: To me, the obvious thing is the scale and scope of the production. This is something that we have not seen for Hawaiians probably ever in cinema. This idea of this large epic story told on such a large broadcast platform, and the involvement of Kānaka in front of the camera as well as behind the camera, even down to the background actors — this has been such a huge, monumental moment for people in the industry, Kānaka industry, as well as Kānaka broadly. We've never seen ourselves up on screen like this before, and to me, it's been a long time coming, and it's been epic to watch.
MEHANA MAKAʻINAʻI: A majority of this series is filmed ma ka ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, in the Hawaiian language, and I think that this is a really incredible and proud moment for our language, for our speakers, for our kaiapuni students, our students who are in immersion school to see, wow, there's this entire series on this huge platform, like Russell said, that is now available in the host culture's language. And I think that that's important to make our language more mainstream. And "Chief of War" can help that happen, to encourage additional people to learn, to be inspired, to look into it, to support different initiatives.
On Hawaiian history portrayed throughout the series
MAKAʻINAʻI: "Chief of War" uses real characters. So like you mentioned, Ke‘eaumoku, Kaʻahumanu, Kaʻiana. These are real people who are a big part of our traditions and our legacy here in Hawaiʻi. But as Russell and I point out, and I think "Chief of War" has also pointed out many times, this series is not meant to be your history lesson. It's meant to introduce you to aspects of culture, to showcase some very important figures in our societies, and then to dramatize it and kind of have fun with it. And they change the story in quite a few areas, but the exposure also gives you that gateway to say, ‘Hey, what else do I want to learn? What do I want to know? Who am I going to look up? Where can I go?’ And that's very important.
On putting together the "Feathers and Fire" podcast
SUBIONO: What I think would set it apart was the idea that we could provide additional context to what was being seen on screen, and we could explain some things and maybe educate some people on why Hawaiians do things a certain way, or why they dress a certain way, or why they use certain implements. But I also wanted it to be fun, and I wanted us to have a fun, engaging conversation, where we could maybe poke a little bit of fun at some of the things that happened on the show, but also at each other. So I was very fortunate enough to come across Mehana, who was game for all of that, for educating people, as well as to just have fun conversations. So it was like finding a diamond in the rough, and then it kind of just worked from day one, from like the first test episode that we did, I knew that we could have a lot of fun doing this.
On biggest surprises from the series
SUBIONO: It's the production value, just like how much money they invested into creating a series that is on par with a lot of these other epic series that we've seen from HBO or from Apple. I'm thinking of things like "Game of Thrones" or "Shōgun" and and they're not a one-to-one comparison, but the amount of production value and the amount of money that they spent to make this look really good, and to especially make it sound really good, like the sound design of all the episodes are really good, really deep. … In one sense, it really says that Hawaiʻi and the stories that we tell here are just as interesting, just as entertaining and just as important as any other story that's out there.
MAKAʻINAʻI: "Chief of War," I feel like has done so many wonderful things for getting people interested in our stories and recognizing incredible feats and skills that our kūpuna in Hawaiʻi had. And so I think that it was very deliberate in how Jason Momoa and [Thomas] Paʻa Sibbett and everyone came together to yes, we want to tell a story that is going to sell and is going to be very dramatic and is going to have all this cinematography associated with it, but we also want to bring in really important and cool aspects of the culture and honor the Hawaiian culture. So I've had fun with not just picking it apart, I think if you don't just come in there and want to pick it apart and say, ‘Well, that's not accurate, and that didn't happen.’ If you don't come at it with that attitude. But instead, you come at it with the attitude that they're showcasing events that maybe didn't happen in the right order, but these are events, and these are skills that our people had. How cool, how wonderful. So it's a good blend.
On why someone should watch
SUBIONO: I think it showcases the beauty of Hawaiʻi, the beauty of our people, how we are in spirit, how we appear, how we dress, how we interact. But also, the cinematography is just excellent. We get some really incredible shots of, and I'm biased, but some really incredible shots of the lava deserts in Kāʻu, some shots of Waipiʻo Valley on the Big Island. It was also shot on Kauaʻi and Oʻahu. So we get a lot of really beautiful scenic views of those islands as well. And I just think that even though this show is titled "Chief of War," they really did go a long way to incorporate a lot of beauty into the series. And if you're interested in Hawaiʻi at all, yeah, the beauty is there.
"Feathers and Fire" is HPR’s companion podcast to "Chief of War." Follow along with the latest podcast episodes released on Saturdays through Sept. 20.
This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 25, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
