\n<\/p>\n
\n\t[This story contains major spoilers from the season one finale of Chief of War<\/em>, \u201cThe Black Desert.\u201d]<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tCome hell or high water, Jason Momoa was going to do everything in his power to execute his ambitious creative vision for the season finale of Chief of War<\/em>, which he considers to be the apex of his three-decade action career.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAt first, no one really thought it was going to be possible. And when we were at the very end of it, people that I really, really respect were like, \u2018I\u2019ve never seen anything like that in my life,\u2019\u201d Momoa, who co-wrote and directed the finale, tells The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>. \u201cBut I knew we only had a certain amount of time, and the only way to pull off something of this magnitude was to shoot it a certain way.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe synopsis of the final episode \u2014 which co-creators Momoa and Thomas Pa\u2019a Sibbett confirm to THR<\/em> is meant to function as a season<\/em>, rather than a series, finale \u2014 may sound relatively simple. After Kamehameha finally comes around to the idea of using Ka\u2019iana\u2019s \u201cred-mouthed weapons\u201d \u2014 the firearms that Ka\u2019iana had acquired during his travels abroad \u2014 in battle, the two chiefs and their small but mighty army go head-to-head with the forces behind power-hungry kings Ke\u014dua (Cliff Curtis) and Kahekili (Temuera Morrison) on the volcanic terrain known as Hawaii\u2019s \u201cBlack Desert.\u201d The brutal battle is a decisive victory for Ka\u2019iana and his allies, thanks in large part to their formidable fighting skills and their use of those devastating weapons.<\/p>\n \n\tBut anyone who has watched the finale knows that summary just barely scratches the surface of the this cinematic ending. \u201cWhen people are talking about episode nine, that conversation really needs to include Jason as a director,\u201d Sibbett says. Shooting in Hawai\u2019i \u2014 much less over the real-life lava fields of Kalapana in the middle of the night \u2014 was actively \u201cdiscouraged,\u201d but Apple TV+ executives eventually signed on to the idea at the insistence of Momoa, who pulls quintuple<\/em> duty on the series as star, co-creator, co-writer, executive producer and now director.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cKeeping it in Hawaii allows the inhabitants of that area, other people from across the island, to participate,\u201d Sibbett adds. \u201cThey get to be the wearers of the feather capes. They get to be the warriors that hold the spears. The impact that has on a people, the impact that has on a culture that has never been shown at this level \u2014 I think that sets [Momoa] apart in this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tEarly on in the writing process, Momoa had a clear idea of how he wanted to helm the finale. \u201cI\u2019ve directed quite a few times before this, and I\u2019ve always wanted to shoot in really good light,\u201d says Momoa, whose prior directorial experience included the 2014 indie film Road to Paloma <\/em>and his recent HBO Max docuseries On the Roam<\/em>. \u201cNot being able to have money or have the crew that could pull off maybe what some larger [productions] could, I\u2019d always have to really scout it, dial it in, and shoot in the right light.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMomoa knew he wanted the battle to end with Ka\u2019iana holding Ke\u014dua at gunpoint, just before Ke\u014dua was killed in a rush of lava. \u201cI wanted to have that moment where I\u2019m staring [Ke\u014dua] down be right at the last bit of that blue light with the lava going off and the ash coming down,\u201d he says. Since he wanted the battle to start in the early afternoon and spill into the late evening, the production had to work backwards and shoot the entire sequence in reverse.<\/p>\n \n\tWith the help of the same stunt team that he has worked with for decades, Momoa meticulously planned out every scene of the battle long before cameras started rolling. \u201cI would shoot four to five units at the same time,\u201d the director reveals. \u201cI had to pick the storylines that I wanted to shoot within each of the other three to four units, so that I was getting what was going on with me, what was going on with Kamehameha, what was going on with my brothers and my wife. I had to make sure I blocked out correctly all those moments.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cDon\u2019t be fooled by his abs and physique. He\u2019s got a great frontal cortex going on,\u201d jokes Curtis. \u201cI\u2019ve worked with brilliant people, so I know what it looks like and smells like. James Cameron\u2019s got a similar facility \u2014 perhaps on a different scale \u2014 to understanding the complexity of how to manage multiple units, and Jason\u2019s definitely got that facility. It\u2019s very, very impressive to see him map it all out in his mind before it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA lot of people, however, were not convinced that Momoa would be able to pull off what would typically be a weeks-long shoot on another production in just eight days.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe producers were very scared, but I was like, \u2018We\u2019re going to shoot early, and we\u2019re going to end not too far after noon and get some of the daylight.\u2019 We got up at 3 a.m., started at 4 a.m., and we\u2019d probably end at 2 or 3 p.m., and then I\u2019d stay and prep for the next [night],\u201d Momoa says. \u201cYou could have shot this in a Walmart parking lot, and you could probably put green screens up, like we normally do on other things, and just put down black and use it as lava fields. But you\u2019re going to feel that we were there when the volcano went on.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMomoa enlisted the rest of his producing and filmmaking team to oversee each of the units, and he would always be running between scenes, if not acting in them. \u201cI had just done this LeBron James Nike commercial, so I had these lavender trainers on with my Malo, and my ass was just running from one side to the other,\u201d Momoa recalls with a laugh, evoking quite a striking visual. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a lava field, so you fall. I think I\u2019m the one that got messed up the most, but thank God we had no accidents. But I was just running, because I had it all in my head. This is how I like to direct. Most people don\u2019t know that, but I\u2019ve been doing it for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs Momoa puts it, the Hawaiian gods seemed to be on his side during the grueling shoot. A few hours before they were set to begin their first late-night shoot of the finale, Mauna Loa, the nearby volcano, erupted for the first time in 38 years. After pausing production for a day to review the air quality, the cast and crew resumed production. The next day, another mountain, K\u012blauea, became active, but the smoke blew away from the set. \u201cObviously, many volcanoes did create the Hawaiian Islands, but in our written history, it has never been documented that they both went off at the same time. That happened as we started,\u201d Momoa says.<\/p>\n \n\tAfter a little bit of rain on the first day, the weather was clear for eight days in a row. But the day they wrapped, it started pouring rain and Mauna Loa stopped erupting, recalls Momoa. \u201cIt was the biggest, most beautiful omen. We stirred up so much [energy], and it just felt like we were doing the right thing. It\u2019s powerful, man. There\u2019s footage of us there dancing in the rain with all the extras [after] fighting on lava. Nothing will ever come close to that, ever<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMomoa was also not afraid to take some creative liberties with the historical facts. Before they officially started attacking each other, the two sides would first engage in a kind of spiritual battle. Their respective kahunas would do their chants, the volcanoes would go off, and then the two sides would engage in a kind of rap battle in \u014clelo Hawaii, where they would taunt each other. In this case, \u2018\u014cp\u016bnui spoke for Ke\u014dua, while Ka\u2019iana spoke for Kamehameha.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen we came up with this [scene], I was like, \u2018What\u2019s the most disrespectful thing [Ka\u2019iana] could do? He\u2019s on his enemy\u2019s side, he\u2019s on their land \u2014 and he\u2019s going to speak English,\u2019\u201d Momoa says. \u201cI said, \u2018Listen, if I look to Kamehameha and I ask for permission, and he gives me the nod, I\u2019m going to say this shit [in Engish], and our audience will be able to understand me, my team will understand me, and Ke\u014dua won\u2019t. That will infuriate him. Being able to have that moment in English, the audience understands that it raises the bar.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMomoa knows that he may catch a little flack for deviating from the historical record in that scene. But what he ultimately wanted to accomplish from a storytelling perspective was to piss Ke\u014dua off so much that his troops would try to attack the other side with spears \u2014 only for them to be wiped out one-by-one by the red-mouthed weapons that Ka\u2019iana and his allies had hidden in their capes. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t necessarily what happened, but that idea came out of a place of me just as an actor going, \u2018What would I do? How do I get him to charge me?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThat wasn\u2019t the only choice that Momoa made from his character\u2019s perspective. As an inside joke, Ke\u014dua\u2019s kahuna, whose tongue Ka\u2019iana rips out of his mouth in front of Ke\u014dua during the hectic battle, is played by Kaho\u02bbokahi Kanuha, Momoa\u2019s \u02bb\u014clelo Hawai\u2019i coach.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat\u2019s the guy who lived with me and taught me the Hawaiian language. So he obviously can do these amazing chants, and he can speak the language, but he knows my frustration with it,\u201d says Momoa, who learned the critically endangered language specifically for the role. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m going to rip your tongue out, and I\u2019m going to eat it, dude.\u2019 So [that scene\u2019s] just two buddies just being silly. But it was something that would\u2019ve happened; it\u2019s something I<\/em> would\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMomoa was also keen to give each of the other core group of characters their own moment in the spotlight. For most of the first season, Ka\u2019iana and his wife, Kupuohi (Te Ao o Hinepehinga), have largely been unable to see eye-to-eye. He has been permanently changed by all of the pain and suffering he has seen abroad, and she believes he is no longer the man she fell in love with. \u201cKupuohi\u2019s put in positions where she should blow her top, snap, and just lose her mind so many times, and she doesn\u2019t. Every time she goes, \u2018No, I\u2019ll stay strong. I\u2019ll stand beside my man. I will not break. I will not cry,\u2019\u201d O\u2019Hinepehinga explains.<\/p>\n \n\tBut Momoa always wanted to give Kupuohi a moment of catharsis. One day while shooting the finale, he came running up to O\u2019Hinepehinga with a giddy look on his face. \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018We\u2019re going to stab you right here,\u2019 and he grabs my waist,\u201d she recalls of shooting the moment that Kupuohi gets stabbed during the battle. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m sorry. What<\/em>? You didn\u2019t say I died<\/em>?\u2019 And he\u2019s like, \u2018No, no, no. He\u2019s just going to stab you really lightly.\u2019 And he comes in, and I\u2019m shish-kabobed! He\u2019s like, \u2018We talked about it, remember? There would be a moment. This<\/em> is the moment \u2014 [this] scream is a release of every single moment you have wanted to scream ever.\u2019<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever experienced this, but when I\u2019m overwhelmed with situations or emotions or just work in general, I don\u2019t have a chance to express it. So it all just bubbles to the surface until eventually it blows \u2014 and it\u2019s in the aftermath of the blow where I find clarity in all the things that I\u2019m confused [about],\u201d O\u2019Hinepehinga continues. \u201cI wanted that for Kupuohi. Yes, she\u2019s emotionally intelligent and strong, but a person can only take so much.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKupuohi ultimately survives being stabbed. But immediately following the conclusion of the battle, Kupuohi watches from afar as Ka\u2019ahumanu (Luciane Buchanan) \u2014 the wife of Kamehameha who has clearly been harboring feelings for Ka\u2019iana \u2014 rushes to Ka\u2019iana\u2019s side to make sure that he survived being knocked unconscious. O\u2019Hinepehinga sees Kupuohi\u2019s final look at Ka\u2019iana and Ka\u2019ahumanu as not one of \u201cpain\u201d or \u201cjealousy,\u201d but of \u201cclarity.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhen Kupuohi sees her husband embracing another woman after the battle, \u201cshe\u2019s able to see clarity not only in her future, but her relationships with the people around her. It\u2019s terrifying, but I think there\u2019s liberation in having a complete understanding of where you are in this world and who you are in this world,\u201d O\u2019Hinepehinga says. \u201cI don\u2019t know what that looks like in the future, but a woman liberated is a terrifying thing, I\u2019ll say that much.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThat love triangle could very well play into future seasons of the show. Momoa notes that, historically, Ka\u2019iana was accused of having an affair with Ka\u2019ahumanu, with whom he shared a similar pessimistic worldview. To complicate matters further, by the end of the first season, Ka\u2019ahumanu has officially joined her husband\u2019s council. \u201cBut when she can\u2019t have his kid, there\u2019s a lot of stuff that happens coming up in the future, and I think things shift,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou have to understand our system is completely different from what the modern system is right now. So if a woman wanted to upgrade and make her bloodline stronger, she could leave and go and be with the chief with more stature,\u201d he adds. \u201cKamehameha had many aik\u0101ne [or same-sex relationships]. Kahekili had endless aik\u0101ne. They had men and<\/em> women, so it\u2019s something that we can\u2019t wrap our heads around. We kept it smaller the first season. But it\u2019s a very complex and beautiful system that happened in Hawaii, so I\u2019m sure that did happen.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe other character who has a real moment of catharsis during the battle is Kupuohi\u2019s sister, Heke (Mainei Kinimaka), who lost the love of her life, Ka\u2019iana\u2019s brother, Nahi (Siua Ikale\u2019o), in the penultimate episode. In the finale, Heke brutally slashes, gouges, poisons and then stomps \u2018\u014cp\u016bnui \u2014 the man who presumably sexually assaulted her after Nahi\u2019s killing \u2014 to death.<\/p>\n \n\tAt the end of the finale, after learning that Ka\u2019iana and Kamehameha obliterated Ke\u014dua\u2019s troops, the more sinister Kahekili declares war on Hawai\u2019i. \u201cI\u2019m building something that\u2019s even more crazy. So not to give away a spoiler, but I\u2019m going to have a super monster soon,\u201d Momoa teases of what that ending means going forward. \u201cI\u2019m setting up things, which I like to do. Whether we get greenlit or not, my intentions are there. So there\u2019s a lot of foreshadowing; there\u2019s a lot of things that I want to happen in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor those who are familiar with English literature, Sibbett likens the story of Ka\u2019iana and Kamehameha to that of King Arthur and Lancelot. \u201cThey needed to come together by the end of episode eight. It needed to be understood that they are not the same person,\u201d he says. \u201cThey have a completely different way of thinking and how they view the world, but bringing them together creates the strongest force possible, and we were able to accomplish at least the friendship in episode eight, and by episode nine, it\u2019s showing why it works, how it works, and that they are better off together.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSo much of the first season was about trying to unite the two men \u201cso that we can now really dive into the building of Camelot,\u201d Sibbett explains. Looking ahead, \u201cif you\u2019re thinking of it in terms of King Arthur and Lancelot, I want to expose the world to Camelot. I want to expose them to the world now as we\u2019ve built it, as we\u2019ve seen it, and to really get an idea that Camelot\u2019s not the only kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhereas the first season largely centered around Ka\u2019iana and consisted of \u201cseeing the world through his eyes,\u201d the second season would \u201cbe about really looking at Hawai\u2019i a little bit more from that bird\u2019s eye view, and really starting to see how these kingdoms interact with each other,\u201d Sibbett teases. \u201cI want us to expand the world, if we get a season two, so we can really get an idea of the functionality and how everything works.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhile the co-creators are feeling positive about a renewal \u2014 especially after the overwhelmingly positive responses they have received from critics and the people of Hawai\u2019i and Aotearoa \u2014 Momoa and Sibbett insist that \u201cit\u2019s still too early\u201d for them to pitch a second season. But that does not mean that they have not been tracking the response to the show on social media.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cPeople are really being drawn into not just our big storylines, but even some of these smaller ones. These are actually areas that we would like to build and go deeper into. It\u2019s just a matter of [considering], what\u2019s the public\u2019s taste, and what are they eager for?\u201d says Sibbett, who has noticed that some viewers have gravitated toward the prophetess Taula (Roimata Fox) and Prince Kupule (Brandon Finn), the son of Kahekili, in particular. \u201cOf course, we can tell Ka\u2019iana, Kamehameha and Ka\u2019ahumanu all day. But to see that people are enjoying all these little sub-stories as well is really enjoyable, because we can definitely build more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRegardless of what happens, the cast and crew \u2014 most of whom identify as Polynesian \u2014 have been forever changed by the experience of retelling a key part of Hawai\u2019i\u2019s history. \u201cChief of War<\/em> is such an emotionally liberating story for a lot of us here in Polynesia for so many different reasons, whether it be [speaking] Olelo Hawai\u2019i, or just representation, or the fact that we get to be at the forefront of telling our own stories,\u201d O\u2019Hinepehinga says.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring her final day (or night) of shooting the chaotic finale, O\u2019Hinepehinga turned a corner and saw and heard \u201cthis sea of brown people chanting\u201d Kamehameha\u2019s name. \u201cWe had 500 to 800 Polynesians standing there chanting that statement for the scene, and most of our crew, they were all Kanaka or they had been living on Hawai\u2019i, so they were very committed to living the authentic Hawaiian experience,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI turned and I saw one of our cameramen with tears rolling down his face. He was like, \u2018This is the moment.\u2019 And in that moment, we went, \u2018I don\u2019t care if it succeeds or fails or wins every award out there \u2014 this is what it\u2019s about, this is what it\u2019s for.\u2019 You could just feel it, this sense of pride and achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t***<\/p>\n \n\tThe full first season of <\/em>Chief of War is now streaming on Apple TV+.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [This story contains major spoilers from the season one finale of Chief of War, \u201cThe Black Desert.\u201d] Come hell or high water, Jason Momoa was going to do everything in his power to execute his ambitious creative vision for the season finale of Chief of War, which he considers to be the apex of his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[689,3238,1557,6986,14180,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-23224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-chief","9":"tag-epic","10":"tag-finale","11":"tag-jason","12":"tag-momoa","13":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}