Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Director Responds To The MonsterVerse Criticism That The Humans Aren’t Memorable
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Naturally when one goes into a MonsterVerse project, be it one of the four movies streamable with a Max subscription or something like the new TV show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which is airing to Apple TV+ subscribers, the biggest draw is seeing Titans like Godzilla and King Kong rampage. But each of these stories also involves humans witnessing these giant monsters in action, though there has been criticism that said said humans aren’t memorable. Monarch director Matt Shakman doesn’t share that opinion and opened up about why he feels this way.
Shakman directed the first two episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which has introduced a lot of new faces rather than focused on characters we’ve already met. While chatting about Monarch with DiscussingFilm, the director addressed the criticism towards the franchise that the humans fail to leave a notable impression, saying:
I don’t share that opinion about the Monsterverse movies. I mean, if you just think about Kong: Skull Island – Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, John C. Reilly, Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston – there are incredible characters in that movie. And they’re very memorable and their stories are unique.
Kong: Skull Island certainly had an impressive ensemble cast, and other big names who’ve popped up in the movies include Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Millie Bobby Brown, Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Rebecca Hall, Alexander Skarsgård and Brian Tyree Henry, to name just a few. The Monarch: Legacy of Monsters cast includes Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, Kiersey Clemons and Anna Sawai, among others, and even Goodman reprised Bill Randa in the first episode (which saw him mixed up in a major Titan fight). But even ignoring the fame many of the MonsterVerse’s actors hold,
It’s also important to mention that Monarch is certainly more human-driven compared to the MonsterVerse movies, as its main purpose is to explore the background of the title scientific organization that’s been studying the Titans since shortly after World War II. Matt Shakman discussed this aspect of the show as he continued:
One of the things that was most important for us was that when we were doing monster action, it was from the point of view of the humans, that we were telling the story from ground level. We were not flying high in the sky at Godzilla level, which is where I think a lot of the movies exist. We were more interested in 'How is this monster event affecting the humans that we love and care about?'
Monarch primarily takes place in two times periods: the 1950s, when Bill Randa is starting to establish the organization as a major presence alongside Lee Shaw and Keiko Miura, and 2015, one year after the events of Godzilla, when the public learned about the existence of the Titans. The series certainly isn’t skimping on Titan-fueled action, ranging from an enhanced Godzilla popping up across both these time periods to the Frost Vark (who was the “most challenging” monster for the VFX supervisor to design) popping up last episode, but as Shakman explained, the chief goal is to show humans are being impacted by the existence of the Titans. There’s certainly a lot more real estate to do so across a TV show’s seasons rather than within one movie or several.
New episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters premiere Fridays on the 2023 TV schedule. With his directorial work on the show done, Matt Shakman will next helm the upcoming Marvel movie Fantastic Four, and he previously discussed with CinemaBlend why Godzilla and the MonsterVerse have the same appeal as Marvel characters.
