From ‘Baywatch’ To ‘Chief Of War’: How Jason Momoa Went Back To His Roots

The new Apple TV+ series Chief of War isn’t just a passion project for star Jason Momoa, but the culmination of a 25-year television career.

Momoa has spent most of his TV roles inhabiting outsized characters, fierce warriors, and brooding outsiders. With Chief of War, the historical drama he co-created and stars in, Momoa embraces another larger-than-life role and comes home on his terms. 

Set in 18th-century Hawaii, Chief of War follows Ka‘iana, a noble who becomes a rebel during the islands’ efforts toward unification. For Momoa, who is of Native Hawaiian descent, it’s the summit of a decades-long TV journey charting a return to his roots. 

Long before Aquaman or Duncan Idaho, there was Jason Ioane. Momoa portrayed the young lifeguard on Baywatch: Hawaii. It was 1999, and Momoa had just landed his first acting role. While Baywatch wasn’t prestige television, it was an important starting point. The series was filmed on Oahu and marked the first time Momoa played a character in his native Hawaii, even if the portrayal didn’t emphasize cultural authenticity. 

Still, it introduced Momoa to all the mechanisms of television production. And while he admitted he couldn’t escape the shadow of Baywatch for years, it gave him a sense of how the industry could portray his native Hawaii. 

In 2005, Momoa joined the Stargate Atlantis universe as Ronon Dex. The stoic soldier with a tragic past and imposing presence was Momoa’s first foray into a character archetype he’d go on to perfect for the next 20 years. 

Momoa’s breakthrough came in 2011 with Game of Thrones. As the fearsome Dothraki warlord Khal Drogo, he was again the stoic, brutal outsider. Yet beneath the blood and violence was a character capable of tenderness and love. Unifying the Dothraki and protecting against outsiders mirrors what’s at stake in Chief of War. 

Drogo’s arc brought emotional nuance to what could have been a one-dimensional role. And it set the table for Momoa’s growing interest in portraying cultures often misunderstood or “othered” by outsiders, something he hopes to address with his new Apple TV+ series. 

With more eyes on him in the wake of Game of Thrones, Momoa took creative control over his career. He starred and served as executive producer in Frontier. Momoa played Declan Harp, a half-Cree outlaw waging war against the British-controlled Hudson’s Bay Company in colonial Canada. The show was gritty and violent, as audiences were coming to expect from Momoa. 

However, Frontier was also deeply political with its themes of imperialism and portrayal of indigenous peoples. These ideas return in Chief of War as Momoa continues to tell such stories from a place of agency. 

Momoa’s other collaboration with Apple TV+, See, seemed to blend everything the actor had accomplished prior to its 2019 release. Yes, there are often gratuitous levels of violence in the sci-fi drama. And once again, Momoa’s character, Baba Voss, is a fearless warrior and tribal leader. But themes of fatherhood, sacrifice, and spirituality added more layers to Voss. 

A similar leadership journey is set to play out in Chief of War. As Kaʻiana, Momoa will play a warrior chief with strong convictions about how to best protect the future of his people. The series will tell the story of Hawaii’s unification from the perspective of its native chiefs, warriors, and families rather than colonizers. Momoa spent a decade developing the series, ensuring that Hawaiian and Polynesian voices are front and center. The ensemble cast also includes Temuera Morrison, Luciane Buchanan, Kaina Makua, and Te Ao o Hinepehinga. 

After years of playing warriors from imagined worlds or faraway empires, Momoa is finally telling the warrior story on his own terms.