AppleTV+ Releases Images and Details from Monsterverse Series

Television

Godzilla is taking the small screen. AppleTV+ has revealed details about its upcoming show set in the “Monsterverse” – the universe of the Legendary films featuring Godzilla and King Kong. The show will be called Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and will take place after 2014’s Godzilla, and will follow “two siblings following in their father’s footsteps to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch.” They will eventually find an Army officer named Lee Shaw, played by Kurt Russell and his son, Wyatt Russell, in different time periods. Monarch – the government organization that monitors and wants to control the monsters – “is threatened by what Shaw knows.” And there will be monsters, including Godzilla himself. Chris Black and Matt Fraction developed Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which will run for ten episodes and is expected to premiere on AppleTV+ in the fall.

AppleTV+ released some images from the series as well:

Kurt Russell is enough to get me interested in anything, but Monarch: Legacy of Monsters sounds to me like it’ll be more of the stuff I don’t like from the Monsterverse: a focus on human characters (who tend to be boring), with the monsters on the periphery. That’s why my favorite was Godzilla vs. Kong; it’s not a particularly good movie, but it has lots of monster action, which is what I want from movies like these. And they’re stingy with all the fun stuff. Monarch should be cool – a shadowy organization that wants to control monsters – but it never becomes anything more than some vague idea in the movies. Maybe the show will change that, but I haven’t seen much to convince me that this universe is all that interested in developing a lot of the admittedly interesting ideas it floats. Take the pictures, for example; sure, the one with Godzilla looks great, but based on the movies, that will be one quick scene in one episode, and we won’t see him again till they want another money shot to put in the commercials. It’ll be a nice surprise if this ends up being great, but I’m not betting on it.