Note: This story contains spoilers from “Chief of War” Episode 9.
When “Chief of War” co-creator, co-writer, star and producer Jason Momoa set out to direct the Apple TV+ series’ climactic ninth episode, he did so with just one mission in mind. “I wanted to pull off something epic,” the multi-hyphenate performer told TheWrap.
“Epic” is the right word to describe the resulting episode, titled “The Black Desert.” Episode 9 follows the majority of the show’s core characters as they meet in battle atop blackened, seaside fields of volcanic rock. Momoa’s Kaʻiana leads the armies of Kamehameha I (Kaina Makua) in a long anticipated battle against the forces of Kamehameha’s cousin Keōua (Cliff Curtis) in a fight to determine, once and for all, the true ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
In the ensuing battle, blood is spilled, tongues are ripped out, spears are thrown and lava erupts all before Kaʻiana and Kamehameha ultimately emerge victorious. The violence and scale of the conflict is vividly rendered, and the entire battle is just made all the more impressive by the fact that Momoa directed and starred in it himself. To some, that might have seemed like biting off more than they could chew. But not him.
“Most people don’t know this about me: I love directing. I’ve been doing it for a long time. I want that responsibility,” Momoa confessed. “I operate best in chaos. I operate at such a high speed all the time that I actually love that. Everything becomes very clear to me in those moments.”
Momoa meticulously planned out the episode’s battle long before cameras started rolling on it. He knew from the beginning that he wanted it to start in the afternoon and spill into the evening. Pulling that off, however, meant shooting the entire sequence in reverse.
“I wanted it to look like we were going from day into blue light and then in the last sequence, as Cliff and I are staring at each other, for there to be a final bit of violet in the sky with the lava underneath. I wanted that standoff to be precisely at that moment in time,” Momoa explained. “So that final standoff was shot in the morning and we pieced everything we shot together backwards.”
“We got up at 3 a.m. and we were out on set at 4 a.m. making sure we had the light right,” he continued. “We just did French hours, basically working right through the day until 3 p.m., and then we started the next day at 3 a.m. again. We did that for eight days.”
The sequence was shot on the real-life lava fields of Kalapana, Hawai’i. To complicate matters further, the nearby volcano of Mauna Loa erupted for the first time in over three decades as filming was ongoing, an event which Momoa called “very much a blessing.”
In hindsight, the “Chief of War” co-creator is aware that his ambitious plans likely seemed insane to those around him. But he was confident the whole time not only about what he wanted to do, but also that he would actually be able to execute it.
“I knew strategically how I wanted to shoot it, where I could use certain guys as background [extras] and where I could hide cameras to get certain shots,” he told TheWrap. “I had it all mapped out in my head. I think people were a little bit like, ‘You’re f—king crazy,’ but I wanted to pull off something epic, something where you could see the light change and you could see the hours passing and when every moment of the battle was actually happening.”
While “The Black Desert” sees Kaʻiana and Kamehameha vanquish their enemies in Hawaiʻi, the threat of the war-mongering King Kahekili (Temuera Morrison) and his Kingdom of O‘ahu still looms large at the end of the episode. That may come as a surprise to those who thought “Chief of War” was a limited series, but even though Apple has not yet greenlit a second season of the historical epic, Momoa and co-creator Thomas Paʻa Sibbett are hopeful that they will be given a chance to continue its story.
“There’s different endings,” Momoa said, when asked about where “Chief of War” Season 1 leaves things. “I gotta tell you, the place where I would want to end it isn’t where it ends.” The conclusion of “The Black Desert,” in which Kaʻiana’s fight for the Hawaiian Islands is left partly unfinished, was a compromise that Momoa and Sibbett were forced to make in order to bring the series’ first season to life.
“We have the endings that we liked and this is the ending that [Apple] liked,” Momoa admitted. “There’s things that needed to happen, and we were handcuffed to a certain extent. I’m really proud that we’re able to even be up here doing this, but make no mistake: It’s been the biggest fight of my life to maintain as much integrity throughout this show as we can. There’s only so much you can do.”
Should they get to continue “Chief of War,” Momoa and Sibbett already know what they want to do next.
“My goal is that there will not be a moment lost [between the Season 1 finale and the next episode],” Momoa said. “We pick up right there. The things that have happened are still right there and it continues on, so when you watch this show — however many seasons it ends up being — it will never flash forward. It will continue seamlessly between seasons, so you can watch it all together.”
“It only gets bigger, man,” Sibbett chimed in, teasing the expanded scope of the series’ future episodes, which right now exist only in his and Momoa’s minds. “This story absolutely continues and it absolutely blows up. So if this show is for you, just know that it’s only going to get bigger.”
“All I want is to turn that goddamn camera off and tell you what we’re doing,” Momoa added, bouncing in his chair. “What happens next is… Oh my God. [Laughs] So, man, just tell people to watch the f—king show. Let us finish this.”
“There’s nothing harder I’ve ever done in my life,” Momoa noted, reflecting on his many roles on the show. “But I hope to do more of it. I’m excited for people to see this and love this so we can get the trust of everyone we need to, and then be given the freedom to just go do what still needs to be done.”
“Chief of War” Season 1 is now streaming on Apple TV+.
