Monarch: Legacy of Monsters may operate in the gaps between 2014’s Godzilla and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but that doesn’t mean it’s playing it safe with lore. Simply put: the Apple TV Plus spin-off is going to put the ‘monster’ in MonsterVerse. In fact, multiple new Titans are going to be introduced alongside Godzilla, including insectoid-like Endoswarmers.
Speaking to 12DOVE ahead of release, co-creators Chris Black and Matt Fraction opened up about the opportunity to bring new MUTOs to life – and why they couldn’t stray too far from the real world.
"There’s an expectation on the audience: they want to see monsters. If you’re working in the MonsterVerse, there has to be monsters," Black says.
"We needed to see Godzilla and wanted to see Godzilla, but we were also given the freedom and encouraged to expand that pantheon. We had a great visual effects team who sunk their teeth into ‘What could this be?’ and building a whole cryptozoology of what this world contains."
Fraction, though, cautions that it wasn’t a nightmare fuel blank cheque when it comes to creating the fearsome beasts that crop up during the Godzilla-adjacent series.
"All of the critters you’d see have some sort of precedent or antecedent in our world. It couldn’t just be [something] with six heads, 50 legs, and four mouths. What is this based on? Where are we starting [from] in the real world and growing? That would let us look around the world at what things live here and how they survive," Fraction explains.
The first two episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, starring Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell, will premiere on Apple TV Plus on November 17. New episodes will follow weekly.
For more, check out the best Apple TV Plus shows currently on streaming.
