There is enough nostalgic charm within Monarch: Legacy of Monsters to remind viewers of the Apple TV show of a more innocent era — the 1970s and ’80s in particular — of adventure filmmaking. The second season of the show has arrived, and it is not only larger in scale regarding its monsters but also in its exploration of human connections.
The new season retains the template of what we have already seen, moving between the 1950s early Monarch antics of Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell), his buddy, the cryptozoologist Bill Randa (Anders Holm), and their shared love interest Dr Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), and the post-Godzilla-attack 2010s where the offspring of Randa and Miura deal with problematic corporate entities. This time around, Keiko has to drive the action prominently across two eras, and Kurt Russell once again portrays the older version of Shaw brilliantly.
“Every day was like, ‘where am I, who am I?’ At least I’m playing the same person. I think one of the things I did to differentiate the timelines was… I always have a scent for my character. I had a different scent for each timeline so that I would send a message to my brain: ‘Okay, we’re doing the 1950s today.’ Also, knowing the character from season one… the continuation of things in the ’50s, like that optimistic person who is gung-ho about her mission… that helped,” Mari Yamamoto told us over a video call.
Yamamoto’s early life was spent studying method acting before her career took a new turn; she became a journalist for a few years before making a full-time entry into the world of acting. She said it was important for her character to “hang on to this optimism” from season one. “Despite everything — heartbreak and sadness — she tries to go back to her old self.”
New secrets and mythical origins
If season one was about tracking two siblings looking to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organisation known as Monarch, season two picks up with the fate of Monarch — and the world — hanging in the balance. It reveals buried secrets that reunite heroes (and villains) on Kong’s Skull Island, and introduces a new, mysterious village called Santa Soledad in 1957 Chile where a mythical Titan rises from the sea. The ripple effects of the past make waves in the present day, blurring the bonds between family, friend, and foe — all with the threat of a Titan event on the horizon.
“Season two is on another level. I think that in season one he had this infectious passion and obsession with truth-seeking and finding out what happened to him in his past on a navy ship, and finding out what’s possible in this universe with these monsters. And now, when you catch up with him in season two… monsters exist. And he’s still passionate and seeking more. It’s never going to be enough. He’s established this relationship with Keiko, but he prioritises the passion for what he’s seeking. What begins as a quality in season one becomes his flaw in season two,” Anders Holm told us.
Holm, who plays a young Bill Randa, is most notably known as the star and co-creator of the hit show Workaholics. On the television side, he was most recently seen in the comedy series The Muppets Mayhem. Holm has also starred as the male lead in Shonda Rhimes’ award-winning series Inventing Anna, alongside Julia Garner and Anna Chlumsky. On the feature side, he can be seen in the comedy About My Father with Robert De Niro and Kim Cattrall, as well as alongside Diego Boneta and Monica Barbaro in the romantic comedy At Midnight. Holm also wrote, starred in, and produced the comedy Game Over, Man! alongside Scott Rudin and Point Grey.
Rise of a living cataclysm
The second season of the Apple TV show is built on an epic scale as it introduces a new Titan: the enigmatic Titan X that is now officially on the loose. Titan X isn’t just another monster; it’s a living cataclysm. When its massive bioluminescent form breaks the surface of the ocean, the world seems to hold its breath. In season two, Titan X stands at the centre of the mystery — an ancient force emerging from the deep, its purpose uncertain, its power unmatched, providing awe and terror in equal measure.
“We are always so proud to be able to share our Titan favourites. But we also felt like it would be really exciting to create a new Titan for our audience and give them something where they don’t know where the Titan is coming from or why the Titan is here. We wanted to give a little bit of a mystery box there,” said Tory Tunnell, executive producer of the show.
Giving the new Titan a realistic feel is the work of the VFX team. “It feels like everything has been very purposefully considerate of how they move, how they metabolise…. We’re always refining, but we all have instinctually the same idea about what we’re chasing, and we knew that we wanted to be having this nautical storyline that was going to be something that would separate itself from things we’d seen before,” said Tunnell.
Packed with tragedy, secrets, and sacrifice, and that mythical new Titan rising from the sea, season two sees events from the past ripple outwards in the present. The fate of Monarch — the research organisation now threatened by the increased presence of a cybernetics company known as Apex — and the world hang ominously in the balance. The question is: Which path will the heroes choose? A journey of self-discovery or finding out what they truly believe in.
“Season one is the revelation, season two is the reckoning. And so we were learning and kind of playing catch-up in season one and going, ‘oh my gosh, like, this person has another family,’ and that affected them, and they grew up, and now they’re together. Now, when you’ve got these monsters as the backdrop, every scene that’s with these characters and about the monsters has this subtext. I think that it adds another layer that you don’t really associate with monster movies or these kind of shows,” said Holm.
For Yamamoto, the show hits differently because she grew up in a world where talk of Godzilla was everywhere. “As a Japanese person, it’s everywhere... Godzilla is everywhere. You see the imagery and hear the original soundtrack… the theme of Godzilla. I used to sing it with my friends whenever we were teasing somebody or like something scary is coming. It was a part of our lives, and I would go as far as to say it’s part of our identity in a way, because it’s probably our biggest export. To get to play in that universe is beyond my dreams. I never thought this would happen. It’s amazing,” she said.
Even Holm was familiar with Godzilla as a child. “It’s iconic. Everybody knows Godzilla all around the world, and even as a kid outside Chicago, growing up with toys and watching the old movies dubbed into English… they just had a whole different texture than American movies that was fascinating.”
Legendary Entertainment’s Monsterverse is an expansive cross-platform universe of interconnected stories, and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two is its latest sensational entry. Godzilla debuted as a character in 1954, born famously from the ashes of WWII, but the Monsterverse began with Gareth Edwards’ critically acclaimed Godzilla in 2014. It has since expanded to huge box office success through 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong and, most recently, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which went on to become the highest-grossing Godzilla film of all time. The saga will also continue to unfold on the big screen with Godzilla x Kong: Supernova in 2027.
