Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Boss Is ‘Optimistic’ About Season 2 Renewal

Matt Webb Mitovich
·2 min read
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Will Apple TV+’s monster mash continue?

The first, 10-episode season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (aka “the Godzilla series”) comes to a close this Friday, with the release of a rather epic finale. (You’ll cry, you’ll be on the edge of your seat, you’ll cheer.)

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Official Season 2 renewal news, however, remains as elusive as the OG daikaiju.

Speaking with TVLine on Wednesday afternoon, showrunner Chris Black affirmed, “We do not have a Season 2 order,” two days out from the finale. That said, “This show has done very well,” he volunteered, “so we’re optimistic and excited. We feel we have more story to tell.”

Set in the same Monsterverse as movies such as Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla vs. Kong, Monarch in Season 1 tracked two timelines. In the “present” day (the year 2015), we followed young Cate (a survivor of Godzilla’s San Francisco rampage), Kentaro and May (played by Anna Sawai, Ren Watabe and Kiersey Clemons) as they sought out Cate and half-brother Kentaro’s presumed-dead father Hiroshi, who had been involved with the mysterious Monarch group. That journey led the trio to Colonel Lee Shaw (played by Kurt Russell), who back in the day used to hunt MUTOs/Titans with Hiroshi’s mother, Dr. Keiko Miura.

The other timeline has skipped around the late 1940s through early ’60s, where a younger Lee (Wyatt Russell) and Keiko (Mari Yamamoto), along with Bill Randa (Anders Holm), founded Monarch as a well-funded scientific arm of a very curious U.S. Army. But as Monarch oversight got passed around to less-interested and increasingly skeptical military leaders, Lee, Keiko and Bill saw their contributions and power diminish.

In the 2015 timeline, Monarch itself — populated by Tim (Joe Tippett), Duvall (Elisa Lasowski) and boss lady Natalia (Mirelly Taylor) — has loomed as a threat of sorts, one that is either harassing Cate & Co. or appealing to the young’uns for help.

Black (Severance, Star Trek: Enterprise) and Matt Fraction developed Monarch and serve as executive producers alongside Matt Shakman (WandaVision, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), who directed the first two episodes.

Check back on Friday for TVLine’s Q&A with Black about the Monarch finale’s very big twists and incredibly emotional moments.

Want scoop on Monarch, or for any other TV show ? Email InsideLine@tvline.com, and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!

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