Jason Momoa made an appearance on the SmartLess podcast, piping in from London to promote his new Apple TV+ series Chief of War. (He is currently in Budapest shooting Dune: Part Three, and was supposed to be in New York, but bad weather put him down in the U.K. for the night.)
He regaled the show’s hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes with tales of his younger years as a daredevil surfer and how his new Hawaiian-based period adventure series may have caused volcanic eruptions — then he spoke about how we should ready ourselves for a second generation of Momoa action stars.
“He’s trained in martial arts his whole life,” Momoa said about his 16-year-old son Nakoa-Wolf Momoa, who goes by Wolf.
Warner Bros.
“He always wants to act. I’m like, you’re not acting. There’s no way — I’m not letting you act. He does, like, school plays in Topanga, right? That’s it.”
Momoa went on to explain that while making Hollywood films at his level is “not digging ditches,” it’s still “f—ing hard” and described rehearsing fight scenes over and over again in a 40-pound suit.
To skip ahead a bit, producer Cale Boyter got a look at the kid (whose mother, of course, is Lisa Bonet) and said, “He oughta be in pictures!” Next thing you know, he is cast as Leto II, one of the two twin children of Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya’s characters in Dune: Part Three. Suddenly, there’s a lot of change in the kid’s life.
“Bro,” Momoa explained, “the premiere of Chief of War, we flew to Hawaii. We did the premiere, I think, the 18th. We got on a plane that night. We landed on the 19th. My daughter’s 18th [birthday] was the 20th. We flew out the 21st. We landed in Budapest on the 22nd. He went to work on the 23rd. His first goddamn scene, I’m sitting there s—ting my pants.”
Amy Sussman/Getty
The proud papa continued, “He’s with Zendaya. I’m like, ‘He’s in it.’ And I’m like, ‘My baby, 16 years old.’ And he just killed it. I’m just crying. I was a f—ing wreck. I was so proud of him.”
Hayes asked if he ever said, “You were right, this is f—ing hard,” to which Momoa responded, “He’s like, ‘Pop, I have so much respect for you now.'”
Chia Bella James/Warner Bros.
He concluded by saying, “You want your kids to just be better than you. I’m like, ‘This motherf—er’s gonna be, like… he’s gonna blow me away.'”
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Dune: Part Three is scheduled for release on Dec. 18, 2026. To get you pumped, here’s a look at Hans Zimmer performing sections from the Oscar-nominated, interplanetary Dune score.
