It is an exciting time to be a Godzilla fan. The King of the Monsters, who first appeared on screens in 1954, will be a ubiquitous presence in the coming months, with no less than three different incarnations of the character lumbering into view between now and next Easter.
In Japan Godzilla Minus One, the 37th film in the franchise, directed by Takashi Yamazaki, took the box office by storm last weekend, raking in more than 1 billion yen (US$6.6 million) in its first three days.
Eager viewers need not wait until spring 2024, however, as Monarch: Legacy of Monsters launches on November 17 on Apple TV+. The second MonsterVerse show after the animated Skull Island on Netflix, this new 10-episode series lays out the history of Monarch, the secret organisation tasked with monitoring Godzilla and the other Titans.
Spanning 60 years and three generations of characters, the show attempts to join the dots between the earliest sightings in the early 1950s and the chaos that unfolded in the San Francisco attack of 2014 – an event now referred to as G-Day.
Ranked: the 10 best Japanese Godzilla films of all time
Ranked: the 10 best Japanese Godzilla films of all time
One year on, she travels to Tokyo to settle the affairs of her father, who is presumed dead. On arrival, she is blindsided by the revelation that her father had a second family, news equally traumatic for the wife (Qyoko Kudo) and son, Kentaro (Ren Watabe), Cate finds there.
The lies continue when it becomes apparent that their father was not a mild-mannered scientist, but worked for Monarch.
After discovering a cache of secret files, Cate and Kentaro, together with Kentaro’s friend May (Kiersey Clemons) – a tech-savvy American expat – go on the run, pursued by government agents yet determined to learn the truth behind Monarch, G-Day and their father’s fate.
Their path eventually leads them to ageing US military officer Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell).
Simultaneously, the story jumps back to the 1950s, where scientists Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) and Bill Randa (Anders Holm) are exploring bizarre natural anomalies in far-flung corners of Southeast Asia.
Granted a military escort in the form of a young officer Shaw (played here by Kurt’s son, Wyatt Russell), the trio quickly become a tight-knit unit navigating treacherous post-war hotspots and unearthing evidence of huge ancient creatures that will become known as MUTOs, or Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms.
Of the two unfolding narratives, this second strand is by far the more rewarding.
While Keiko and Bill are quickly established as a couple (and Cate’s grandparents), there is palpable tension between the Japanese scientist and her army escort, which adds spice to their subsequent negotiations with a US military eager to explore the limits of its newly acquired atomic capabilities.
Conversely, the more awkward dynamic unfolding in 2015 often slows the pace of the show.
Cate’s single-minded search for her father often feels like it is spinning its wheels to help pad out episodes, while Kentaro is a dull and forgettable character. His apparent romantic history with May never rings true, while May’s own shady backstory is kept too deep in the shadows to become genuinely compelling.
The casting gimmick of father and son playing the same character works a treat, and also fuels a running joke about exactly how old Russell senior’s Shaw is supposed to be. Effortless charisma and screen presence clearly run in the family, as the material is elevated whenever either Russell is on screen.
Of course, the burning question is how well Monarch: Legacy of Monsters delivers on the proposition of its title. Based on the first five episodes we have watched, Godzilla sightings are relatively sparse, relegated to a few traumatic flashbacks to the destruction of G-Day as well as to an engagement in the Pacific Ocean many years earlier.
Other MUTOs do make an appearance, however, including a memorable frost-breathing behemoth marauding across the wintry wastes of Alaska.
Nevertheless, fans of the MonsterVerse will probably concede that the franchise was in need of some explanatory information about Monarch, its motives and exactly how much it knows about Titans, the Hollow Earth, and Skull Island.
This show at least attempts to restore some of those redacted secrets.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters will start streaming on Apple TV+ on November 17.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
