London-based Studio AKA’s main-title sequence for Apple TV Plus’ Chief of War fuses natural materials with the volcanic landscape of Hawai’i to tell the story of an island nation at war – first amongst themselves and later with its would-be colonizers. 

The piece starts with a shot of the highly-prized yellow feathers of the now-extinct Hawaiian Mamo bird, which, when worn, indicated a high-ranking chieftain. The feathers are submerged in gentle waves before popping up in the soil, indicating the interdependence between ocean and land in Native Hawaiian life. As the sequence goes on, yellow feathers cover one island while red feathers cover another as the island nation sinks into war. In the show, the chiefs wear elaborate cloaks and helms made from these feathers. 

The sequence is set to a score by Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.

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‍Chief of War is the passion project of star, creator and executive producer Jason Momoa and his collaborator Thomas Pa’a Sibbett. Both Momoa and Sibbett were committed to accurately presenting the native Hawaiian culture as they would have been seen in the early 1800s. 

Besides Momoa as noble and warrior Ka’iana, it also stars Temuera Morrison (The Book of Boba Fett) as King Kahekili, who feels it is his prophesied right to conquer all of the Hawaiian islands at any cost; Cliff Curtis as Keoua, the overlooked son of Hawai’i’s former king; and Kaina Makua as Kamehameha, who history reveres as Hawai’i’s uniter. 

‍Chief of War premiered Friday, August 1 on Apple TV Plus with the first two episodes. New episodes of the nine-part limited series drop each Friday, with the finale, directed by Momoa, on September 19.