Summary
A director of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has revealed how the upcoming show is planning to avoid a complaint from the MonsterVerse franchise. The show will be the first live-action television title in the franchise, which includes the movies Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla vs. Kong. It will focus on the mysterious monster-studying organization called Monarch, following Army officer Lee Shaw (played at different ages by Kurt and Wyatt Russell) and an ensemble of characters played by Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Mari Yamamoto, Anders Holm, Joe Tippett, and Elisa Lasowski.
Collider recently sat down with director Matt Shakman about Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 1, which debuts on Apple TV+ on November 17. He acknowledged that the movies have a habit of “focusing at a higher altitude” and spending more time with the monsters than the human characters. He revealed that, because it needs to tell a longer story over 10 episodes, Monarch has developed characters that “deliver the excitement” and provide “the perspective of the people on the ground.” Read his full quote below:
People were very excited. What [co-developers] Chris [Black] and Matt [Fraction] cooked up was exciting for everybody. It brought me in. I was incredibly excited about the story. It felt fresh. I think everybody realized that when you’re telling a series, when you’re doing a drama series over 10 episodes, you need to be fully invested in these characters on the ground. So, their approach was really about telling a monster story from the point of view of the people on the ground, which is something that I love doing on Game of Thrones, too. I’m far more interested in what’s happening in the Lannister army on the ground being burned up and how war is changing. It’s the same way of, you know, trying to understand what it’s like to be the people in San Francisco as the monsters go by.Sometimes, the movies, which are incredible, are focusing at a higher altitude; they’re dealing with Kong versus Godzilla. So we needed to make characters that would pull you through that story, that you would love and care and be concerned about, and then also deliver the excitement of what’s happening in the upper atmosphere, too, but more from the perspective of the people on the ground. They cracked that beautifully. They had a very fresh way in. I think everybody was excited about that from the get-go, people at Apple, people at Toho, people at Legendary, and they’re all incredible partners.
The MonsterVerse Could Use More Consistent Characters
Throughout the history of the Godzilla franchise, the human characters have provided the spine of the narrative without frequently recurring in multiple entries. The major exception in the Japanese Godzilla movies would be the character Miki Saegusa (Megumi Odaka), a psychic who appeared in six consecutive movies from 1989’s Godzilla vs. Biollante through 1995’s Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Although actors such as Kenji Sahara and Akira Takarada have appeared in many of the more than 30 entries in the franchise, they have typically played different characters in each new appearance.
Although there are four movies in the MonsterVerse franchise, they have featured a similar inconsistency of characters. While there are more recurring human characters overall, the shifting settings and unusual MonsterVerse timeline mean that most of the major returning characters have only been featured in two movies apiece. This includes Millie Bobby Brown as survivor Madison Russell (Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong), Ken Watanabe as Monarch scientist Dr. Serizawa (Godzilla and King of the Monsters), and Bryan Tyree Henry as conspiracy theorist Bernie Hayes (Godzilla vs. Kong and the upcoming Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire).
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has already revealed its intention to present the MonsterVerse with a stronger web of characters. For instance, the Monarch trailer revealed that John Goodman will return for the first time, reprising his Kong: Skull Island role as Monarch official Bill Randa. If Shakman’s assessment is correct, the show could provide the franchise’s various timelines with their most consistent slate of recurring characters yet, which could help future entries tell a continuing story with more forward momentum.
Source: Collider
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