His contemporary was Kamehameha I (played in Chief of War by Kaina Makua), who would eventually become known as Kamehameha the Great. Like Kaʻiana, he was probably born in the 1750s, and came from the Big Island. And his aristocratic lineage, though questioned, cemented his future as a strong leader too, according to National Geographic.

Nearly everything written about “Chief of War” — the new series set in 18th-century Hawaii for which the Honolulu-born Jason Momoa was a creator, writer, director and star — has referred to the show as a passion project. And for about four minutes, at the show’s beginning, it feels like one.