‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Star Wyatt Russell on Why He Waited to Work With Kurt Russell and ‘Thunderbolts’ Anticipation
[This story contains spoilers from Monarch: Legacy of Monsters episode six, “Terrifying Miracles.”]
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters star Wyatt Russell has had several opportunities to work alongside his father Kurt over the years, but the younger Russell insisted on establishing himself on his own first.
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On the Chris Black- and Matt Fraction-created Monarch, the father-and-son duo share the role of Lee Shaw, a U.S. Army colonel and onetime Monarch agent who’s been tracking the emergence of MonsterVerse Titans since the early 1950s. The two Russells put a great deal of thought into their portrayals in order to ensure that Kurt’s version of Lee in 2015 felt like a logical extension of Wyatt’s character from the ‘50s.
Ultimately, the 37-year-old Russell is glad he waited as long as he did to collaborate with his father.
“[Starting out,] I just wanted to do something that was my own. I’ve now been doing this for 15 years, and I wouldn’t have been able to do [something like Monarch] 10 years ago,” Russell tells The Hollywood Reporter. “So this felt like a time where I could go, ‘You know what? I can stand on my own here and actually be an addition to [Monarch] in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to be, at all, 10 years ago.’”
Young Shaw begins the MonsterVerse spinoff as a military escort for Dr. Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto) in the Philippines, and they eventually form a Titan-tracking triumvirate with Keiko’s future husband, Bill Randa (Anders Holm). The trio not only earned the backing of the U.S. government’s secretive organization known as Monarch, but they also gained quite a bit of control over the Godzilla-chasing operation.
However, in the recently aired sixth episode, “Terrifying Miracles,” it was revealed that prior to Keiko and Bill’s union, Shaw and Keiko first had feelings for each other. And Shaw, instead of tending to Monarch bureaucracy per his teammates’ wishes, followed his feelings for Keiko to a mission in Japan, jeopardizing their command over Monarch and likely any chance of a romantic relationship.
Wyatt Russell says he’s just grateful that he and Yamamoto had the ability to explore these characters in a deeper way, something the prior MonsterVerse films haven’t really had the runway to do in a meaningful fashion. “There’s a romantic element to it that was so fun to play in a Godzilla movie, and it added depth of character in ways that you don’t normally get the time to do in a monster movie. You just don’t get the opportunity,” Russell says.
Russell will soon be gearing up for Marvel Studios’ Thunderbolts alongside his Lodge 49 director, Jake Schreier, and a who’s who of actors including Harrison Ford, Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Steven Yeun and David Harbour. Russell believes that his character, John Walker/U.S. Agent, still has a long road toward redemption after the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
“There’s so much to play with John, and there’s so much more to do with John. I’m so lucky to get to work with the kind of talent that I’m going to work with when Thunderbolts starts up in March or April,” Russell says. “It just feels like we’re going for something that has depth and something interesting to theorize about beyond just flying around and doing superhero stuff.”
Below, during a recent chat with THR, Russell also explains why his short-lived AMC series, Lodge 49, is his most cherished project and one that even his father would love to see revived for a third season or movie someday.
So did they approach you and your dad at the same time, or did they first test the waters with just one of you?
We were trying to figure that out. We have the same agent, so I believe Darren [Boghosian] called me first and was like, “There’s this thing. What do you think your dad would think?” I think that’s the way it happened, but I can’t really remember. So [Monarch] had the casting idea, and then they basically called us both at the same time and were like, “Would you guys be into this?”
When I spoke to Matt Shakman, I theorized that you would’ve said no to an opportunity like this 10 years ago. My guess was that you would’ve wanted to establish yourself outside of your family, something you’ve clearly done now. So how wrong or right am I?
You’re very, very right. I always felt like I needed to create something on my own and wherever that ended up is where it was going to end up. I didn’t have a desire to go be something or be somebody or be somewhere. I just wanted to do something that was my own. Whether that ended up with me in weird, obscure Latvian films or bigger-budget movies, both would’ve been fine; I just wanted to do things the way I wanted to do them. Looking back on it, I feel more mature; I’m almost 40. I’ve now been doing this for 15 years, and I wouldn’t have been able to do [something like Monarch] 10 years ago. You learn so much through reps and doing lots of TV and movies, and then you meet different people and have different situations. Things work, things fail. Nothing seems to make sense in terms of the outcome of things, and how [you think] it’s going to be in your mind always ends up being something different. So this felt like a time where I could go, “You know what? I can stand on my own here and actually be an addition to [Monarch] in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to be, at all, 10 years ago.”
What was the schedule for Monarch’s two separate timelines typically like? Did you shoot your ‘50s stuff in a vacuum, basically? Were you often separated from the 2015 cast?
There were two different pods: Mari [Yamamoto], Anders [Holm] and me, and then Kurt, Kiersey [Clemons], Ren [Watabe] and Anna [Sawai]. Sometimes, we would overlap, but they were mostly in pretty different locations. If we were all working at the studio, then one [pod] would work on stage A and the other on stage B, and so that was when my dad and I actually got to hang together. We’d have breaks or lighting setups at the same time, and they set up these fire pits outside our trailer. So we’d talk about what was going on on his set and what was going on on our set. We’d also talk about the storylines, and that was really fun. It only happened a handful of times; we really didn’t see each other that much. So it was really special when it did, and those were a couple of great days.
At the beginning of episode three, older Lee’s face dissolves into younger Lee’s face. Was your dad working off of your footage, or were you working off of his footage?
He was working off of my footage. Unfortunately, I was squinting into the sun and so he had to squint into the sun the same way. (Laughs.) But that was the kind of care that he took. He came down to my set more than I went to his set. Our schedules were different, but he came down a few times. So, as he’s said, he had to work off of what I was doing a little bit, because I was young Lee, and so he would just watch and then we’d hang out and talk. So he matched the tone and the facial expression that I was doing in the footage, and he did it perfectly. That blend is incredible. It really links the time periods together, and it was really important that it was done very well.
Shakman told me that your dad would chime in on young Lee’s costume choices in the ‘50s. What was the rationale there?
To be honest, I don’t remember my dad chiming in on my wardrobe choices. Maybe he did with Matt, and if he did, he would be chiming on his own wardrobe [as a younger man]. He needed to be able to have been that [younger] person, so that he gets to the [older] person that he’s playing. That was always really important, but it was also a challenge to do on set. Sometimes, you get myopic about the scene that you’re doing, and you forget that there’s an entire other timeline that’s happening and an entire other crew that’s shooting an entire other show. So we had to keep the 30,000-foot view in mind. I needed to make sure that young Lee becomes [older Lee]. I couldn’t violate the person that he became, and so you’re holding these two things in your hand, simultaneously, and trying to balance everything. That could be a little challenging at times, but it was a fun challenge, and I think we did pretty good.
Overall, what was the biggest debate the two of you had about the character and how he should be?
There was definitely no debate. If there would’ve been debate, I don’t think we would’ve continued doing it. Before we signed on to do it, we really wanted to make sure that this was something that we both wanted to do, separately. And you have to remember that this was a casting idea; it wasn’t written with us in mind. [Casting director] Ronna Kress came to us with this amazing idea, and we were like, “That is an amazing idea. So let’s make the actual execution of the idea as good as it can be.” As we started down that path, we set a very, very high bar for ourselves, individually, and together, the bar felt like it was set even higher. We were very much in agreement on who this character should be, and we collaborated with [co-creators] Chris Black and Matt Fraction, who were great. We had to make the character into something that utilized our strengths, and we put a lot of work into it. So we’re happy with the way it turned out.
Now, your father has aged very well, but Lee Shaw has aged even better as of the 2015 timeline. So how does a 90-year-old Shaw not look a day over 70?
(Laughs.) Well, that’s part of the mystery. That’s why we all need to get Apple TV+ and find out what that mystery is all about. That shall be somewhat explained, but it does remain a little bit of a mystery.
Your story begins with Keiko’s (Mari Yamamoto) death in 1959, but then it jumps back to 1952 when Lee first meets Keiko and Bill (Holm) en route to Monarch. Did you ever ask why they structured it with Keiko’s death first?
That’s a very good question. Yes, we did [ask], because you risk confusing people. There’s no doubt about it. But you needed to start at the end of that [1950s] storyline and then work up to what happened in that moment, so that you were informing the [2015] storyline. The end of episode one leaves the question and the quest of the series. I don’t want to give it away because that is literally what the series ends up being about, but all of the themes that are set in 1959 needed the history of that trio, Bill, Kieko and Lee. It needed the history to be behind them so that we could go back and learn what the history was. So that sets up what the future actually is, and that was a challenge. That was a challenge for Matt and Chris, and that was a very difficult thing to try and engineer. They did a really good job of building a moving train — because that’s what it felt like sometimes. [Writer’s Note: I rewatched episode one after episode six, and the former’s 1959 scenes have a lot of subtext that is informed by episode six, so telling the 1950s story out of order adds another dimension to the rewatch.]
Before Bill and Keiko became a couple, we now know from episode six that Lee and Keiko first caught feelings for each other. Lee then prioritized his feelings for Keiko over Monarch bureaucracy, costing them control of their operation. What did you make of Lee’s impulsive choice?
I always thought of Lee as a guy who was willing to take chances for the things that he loved most, and by prioritizing his desires for Keiko, he’s following his heart. And wherever he ends up is where he’s going to end up, and he’ll have to deal with picking up the pieces. It hearkens back to being a human story. We wanted the characters to be real, and we wanted their actions to be real. And in reality, if you’re in love or you feel like you could be in love, something Lee probably never thought he’d have, then he’s going to go after that. He’s going to try, because, in his mind, he’s like, “Maybe we can have it all.” But she knows [and says], “I don’t think that’s possible.” And he says, “Well, we can try.”
So there’s a romantic element to it that was so fun to play in a Godzilla movie, and it added depth of character in ways that you don’t normally get the time to do in a monster movie. You just don’t get the opportunity. I’m so glad that they went in that direction, because episode six really strengthened everybody’s bond, and Mari, Anders and I were really feeling good about everything.
Wyatt, if I ever find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and I wanted to greenlight Lodge 49 season three, would I have to twist your arm all that much?
(Laughs.) Let’s start the revolution! I was having dinner with my dad yesterday, and he was like, “God, I’d love to see Lodge season three. It just doesn’t feel like it’s over.” And in my life, I don’t feel like it’s over. There’s some weird element of me and my personal life that is totally Dud in a lot of ways. You’re looking at me right now, but this is not me. (Laughs.) This is not what I look like, normally. There’s just something so magical about Dud that I never want to see die. I never want to see it go away, and I’ll never let it go. I’ll be 50, and I’ll still be asking somebody if they want to do Lodge 49, whether it be a movie or [another season]. It’s so ingrained in me. [Creator] Jim Gavin and I have such a special relationship, so I could go on forever. It’s the most special thing I’ve done for so many reasons, and if there ever was a world where it actually could happen, I’d do it tomorrow. I’d drop everything. It was that special to me. I always love when it gets brought up, and that’s very Lodge-y in that it never goes away and it never dies. It’s always in your heart. So thanks for bringing it up.
John Walker. He did something unforgivable midway through The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but then in the finale, he saved some people and helped out Sam (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky (Sebastian Stan). Does he still have a long way to go before he’s redeemed?
I hope so. There’s so much to play with John, and there’s so much more to do with John. I’m so lucky to get to work with the kind of talent that I’m going to work with when Thunderbolts starts up in March or April. I don’t know when they’re starting yet, but Sebastian Stan is a great friend and you couldn’t ask for a better actor. Florence Pugh is one of the best actresses in the world right now, and she’s one of my personal favorite actresses in the world. David Harbour. Steven Yeun is one of the better actors in the world right now. You’ve got all of these people in this movie, and I couldn’t feel luckier.
And speaking of Lodge 49, Jake Schreier is the [Thunderbolts] director, and we worked together on six episodes of Lodge. So it just feels like we’re going for something that has depth and something interesting to theorize about beyond just flying around and doing superhero stuff. That’s awesome and cool, and it’ll be in there, too, obviously, but I’m hoping to do what we’ve done with Godzilla. There’s a human element to this and those characters. They’re hard stories to write and do, but if you work hard enough and you really put your heart and soul into it, you can always make them great. So I’m really looking forward to working hard and having a blast. They’re so fun when you let them be fun, and I could not be more excited.
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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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