Jason Momoa to write and star in Apple TV Plus series about the colonization of Hawaii

Apple has a made a point to build the offerings of its Apple TV+ streaming service around big-name creators and potentially exciting and Important (with a capital “I”) projects—quality over quantity, at least in theory. Its latest exciting and possibly Important project certainly falls in line with the sort of things Apple TV+ has been doing: According to Deadline, the service has granted to a straight-to-series order to a limited drama series called Chief Of War that will Jason Momoa as a star, writer, and executive producer.

This will be Momoa’s first time writing for TV, but not his first time working with Apple (he also stars on See, which is becoming one of the service’s flagship genre shows, almost by default). According to the Deadline story, Chief Of War will be the “epic and unprecedented telling of the unification and colonization of Hawaii from an indigenous point of view”—which, it should be noted, is a great idea. Momoa was born in Hawaii and his father is a Native Hawaiian, and while we don’t know specifically who he’ll be playing, it’s safe to assume that this will be a personal project for him (since, again, this will be his first TV writing gig and one of his only writing credits ever).

Thomas Pa’a Sibbett, who worked with Momoa on the 2018 film Braven and co-wrote the upcoming Western The Last Manhunt with Momoa (who will also star in that), co-created Chief Of War with the Aquaman actor. Doug Jung, a writer on Star Trek Beyond and the pilot for the not-picked-up TV adaptation of DC’s comic Scalped, will serve as showrunner. Actor Justin Chon, who directed four episodes of Apple TV +’s Pachinko, will stay in the Apple Infinite Loop to direct the first few episodes of this as well.