Chief of War Trailer Reveals Jason Momoa’s Epic New Apple TV+ Series

Jason Momoa is the star, writer, and executive producer of Chief of War — a new historical action-drama coming to Apple TV+ this summer. The first trailer for the show made landfall on Wednesday, promising cinematic views of the Hawai’i islands and one of the most intense dives into their history ever committed to the screen. The show is set in in the late 1700s, and is based on true events. Momoa plays the warrior Ka’iana, who tries to unify the islands to stand against Western colonization. The show premieres on Friday, August 1st and drops weekly after that on Apple TV+. It has nine episodes in total, concluding on September 19th.

Chief of War depicts the colonization of Hawai’i from an indigenous perspective, and according to Apple, it was a passion project long in the making for both Momoa and his co-creator, Thomas Pa’a Sibbett. Both have native Hawaiian heritage, and fans have likely seen Momoa’s passion for the island state before. He sports a traditional tattoo sleeve on his left forearm, and in 2019, he participated in the protests against the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, a spiritual holy site for native Hawaiians.

Momoa and Sibbett cast other actors with native Hawaiian and Polynesian heritage for this show, including Luciane Buchanan, Temuera Morrison, Te Ao o Hinepehinga, and Cliff Curtis. Several cast members are new to screen acting as well, including Kaina Makua, Moses Goods, Siua Ikale‘o, Brandon Finn, James Udom, Mainei Kinimaka, Te Kohe Tuhaka, and Benjamin Hoetjes.

[RELATED: Jason Momoa Confirms Dune: Messiah Return (but Isn’t Duncan Idaho Dead?)]

The colonization of Hawai’i started in earnest in 1778 when a British exploratory ship stumbled across the islands while charting the Pacific ocean. The islands likely had contact with Europeans and other people in the centuries before that, but it was not recorded. That first meeting ended in violence, but Europeans continued to visit the islands to trade and to resupply on trading voyages across the Pacific. The islands gradually assimilated foreign cultures and practices, but the native population was devastated by violence as well as the introduction of European diseases, plants, and insects.

Ka’iana, the figure Momoa is playing, was a warrior of high social class who did most of his fighting in wars between different native Hawaiian groups. He also traveled with Europeans for just over a year, visiting China, North America, and the Philippines. This gave him a unique perspective compared to many other native Hawaiians, and the ability to trade with Europeans after his return to Hawai’i.

Momoa has already seen great success with his previous Apple TV+ original series, See, which is streaming there now. Chief of War premieres on Friday, August 1st, and airs week to week on Apple TV+.