- Starring
- Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, Ken Watabe
- Creators
- Chris Black, Matt Fraction
- Rating
- TV-14
- Genre
- Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
- Release date
- March 13, 2026
- Where to watch
- AppleTV
In the shadowed aftermath of unearthed truths and Titan awakenings, the Randa family and Monarch’s fractured operatives venture deeper into the Monsterverse’s hidden corners—where Skull Island’s ancient mists conceal Kong’s domain and a terrifying new force, Titan X, stirs from slumber. Godzilla roars anew, alliances strain under seismic revelations, and buried legacies resurface with cataclysmic force—pushing humanity’s fragile guardians toward confrontations that could reshape the world or doom it to endless shadow. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 unleashes epic scale, family reckonings, and colossal clashes in a saga where every secret unleashed threatens to eclipse the last.
James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
Part 1 of 2:
I’ve only watched the first season, but I can honestly say it was very much worth it. I went into it with the same attitude with which I went into Shogun – expecting a lot of action – and was pleasantly surprised when, like Shogun, my expectations were subverted. Rather than relentless sword fights, martial arts, and feudal Japanese warfare, Shogun instead gave us a deep, thoughtful, meaningful story with good characters, good acting, and generally good pacing.
So too with Monarch; I expected to see giant monsters whaling on each other while hapless people ran around screaming, which is definitely fun in its own way, but not terribly demanding of the audience. Instead, what we got was a thoughtful, compelling drama that was also well scripted (generally), well acted (aside from one often painful example which I’ll address directly), and well paced.
The story of Monarch covers two separate timeless that involve the history of the organization from just after WW2 up to the movie “Kong: Skull Island”, and a present day story set immediately following the emergence of Godzilla in the eponymous 2014 movie. I’ll refrain from spoiling anything (because it’s worth the watch), but suffice it to say the real drama and intrigue come into play with the interaction and pseudo-resolution of these two timelines set against an undercurrent of worldwide fear that another giant monster attack may happen at any time, to any city, to anyone. As simple as that sounds, it’s surprisingly compelling.
Now, this being a modern production, I fully expected to be bombarded with insufferable girl bosses, DEI, and weak, ineffectual men who are constantly belittled by their superior female counterparts. Imagine my surprise when that wasn’t the case. Kurt Russell’s character (played superbly as only Kurt Russell himself could in the present, and almost as well by his son Wyatt in the past) is the standout of the series (even if not the star), and the Russells knock it out of the park. Anna Sawai (who would later star in Shogun) delivers a very good performance, as do Phil Tippett, Anders Holm, and Ren Watabe.
Mari Yamamoto is acceptable as Keiko, and Kiersey Clemons’ frequently annoying Mae turns in a mixed performance with occasional bright spots.
Now, the name of the website isn’t “Who Did a Good Job Acting”, so here’s the Woke Report:
Mostly Based
Part 2 of 2:
I was so expecting Kurt Russell to be berated, humiliated, enfeebled, and generally overshadowed by the female cast around him that it got to the point where every time one of them tried to get a snarky one-liner in against him, my eyes were already beginning to roll when he shut them down. Every. Single. Time. It was fantastic, and a breath of fresh air, not because a man was winning an argument against a woman, but because he was always right, at least from his point of view. His character is brave, selfless, heroic, and strong. He is a man, and he acts how I expect men to act.
There are some woke moments – one character is a lesbian, and an entire episode revolves in part around her relationship. It’s gratuitous, narratively pointless, one of two sections of filler, and very much the weakest episode. Another female character is supposed to be a superbly gifted genius hacker and coder, but like most “hacking” in movies and TV, it’s nothing close to what hacking actually looks like. It’s jarring, but only if you know enough about IT to understand how dumb it is.
That said, all in all, the first season of Monarch is a great show, even if you’re not a fan of Kaiju movies. In fact, if you go into this expecting nothing more than huge rubbery monsters slugging it out in a city, you may be disappointed. Or you may, as I did, enjoy it very much for what it is – a story about humans dealing with the world in which those monsters exist, and in which the consequences of their actions are very real.
Kind of liked the story. If you’re an old timer who liked the old Godzilla Black and White flicks this is pretty good. Goes with the recent King Kong / Godzilla CGI flicks which were OK too. Watching a lot of re-runs on streaming, Monarch: Legacy has the benefit of being new with an original plot. Had strong male leads. Unnecessary lesbian kisses at odd times. Not the best of endings in last episode, but teased a new cinematic feature / spin off season with last scene. Needed more monster battle scenes though. So, not bad, but nothing so great as to make you want to subscribe to AppleTV over. (I did a two month cheap trial to watch another flick I wanted to see.)