Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Stars Celebrate Season 1 & Look To The Future At FYC Event

Summary

Apple TV+’sMonarch: Legacy of Monstersseason 1 was a massive hit with both fans and critics. The series takes place following the battle between Godzilla and the Titans that took place in San Fransisco, but it jumps through time quite a bit in order to tell a complete story surrounding the mysteries of Monarch.

Thedramatic saga ofMonarch: Legacy of Monstersspans three generations, revealing buried secrets now that the world knows monsters are real. It is an action-packed, fast-paced series that features mystery and suspense – and of course, a few kaiju. The ten-episode series streams on Apple TV+, with aseason 2 ofMonarch: Legacy of Monstersalready in the works.

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Screen Rantattended theMonarch: Legacy of MonstersFYC Event and spoke with several cast and creatives about the Apple TV+ series, includingKurt Russell (Lee Shaw), Anna Sawai (Cate Randa), Kiersey Clemons (May Olowe-Hewitt), Elisa Lasowski (Duvall), Joe Tippett (Tim), casting director Ronna Kress, and showrunner Chris Black. They each revealed how they felt to the show’s positive reaction and what the best parts of their characters' journeys were.

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Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters Team Reacts To The Praise From Critics & Fans

Critics and fans alike have praised the series for doing what many of the movies haven’t been able to do; tell interesting and exciting stories with both the humans and the monsters. On the carpet, some of the cast reveal how thankful they are to the fans.

Anna Sawai: It was amazing. It’s such a fun show. There’s so much going on. But then truly, the characters are so relatable. They’re all imperfect and dealing with their own troubles and issues. It’s just amazing to see that what we worked hard on is connecting to everyone.

Source:Screen Rant Plus

Elisa Laskowski: We had a feeling we were doing a good show. You never know until it comes out, but there was a good spirit. I think that our creatives just picked just the right people to be part of this and we were just glad they responded. It’s not that easy, obviously, with something like Godzilla, where there is a lot of fans already. Are they going to love it? Or they’re going to hate it?

Kiersey Clemons: You never know making something this big what is going to happen. Because there’s such a big fan base. Honestly, my favorite feedback and responses were people loving the humans in the show. That made me really happy. I think that if they didn’t love the humans in the show, our series wouldn’t have done as well. So I love being a part of a monster superhero world where people are happy and proud of what they’ve done with Godzilla in the world.

Character Journeys Are A Big Part Of Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters

Each and every character in season 1 ofMonarch: Legacy of Monsterswent on some kind of journey, whether physical or spiritual, leading them to evolve in one way or another. When asked what part of their character’s journey in season 1 is their favorite, the cast had insightful answers.

Kiersey Clemons: My favorite part of her journey, I think, was getting to see what was happening prior to joining all of these people and this whole chase, I suppose. I really was excited to get to that episode. And really, the audience learning, knowing why May is the way that she is, why she’s an ashole. I think that oftentimes, we don’t like asholes until we make sense of them.

Kurt Russell: I like the aspect of mystery that he brought for the show and for the audience, because they weren’t quite sure - a lot of things weren’t making sense, but you kind of knew they were going to somehow, and I think the thing I enjoyed the most about what the writers did, and what we were able to achieve on the set in execution of it. It got better and better and better and better and better. And it got more interesting. And then those questions that you had were beginning to be answered in ways that you weren’t expecting. It was like, “Oh, wow, Okay, now I see it.” That’s always fun.

Joe Tippett: I kind of always knew who Tim was, but we wanted to shade him a little bit to keep him ambiguous. So being able to try to play scenes that, if you go back and watch, you’re like, “Oh, this guy is bumbling a little bit.” We’ve talked about how Tim is the guy that spills the soup on himself. And I guess there’s something about that. That’s super fun too, because he’s capable, but also just kind of a klutz.

Kurt Russell On Playing The Same Character As His Son

Something that is intriguing aboutMonarch: Legacy of Monstersis that Wyatt Russell and Kurt Russell both star in the series, but not as father and son. They actually play the same character, Lee Shaw. Kurt Russell, casting director Ronna Kress, and showrunner Chris Black discuss how this came about.

Kurt Russell: That was kind of what drew us to the you show. It was an idea by Ronna Kress, who I just met tonight, she’s a casting woman on the show and she had this idea and then they said, hey, that’s a great idea. We ended up doing it. It was an interesting challenge in that you’re not playing father and son, you’re playing the same person. So it was fun for me to watch Wyatt lay this character down, I got to go over on his set when he was shooting a fight scene where he’s first introduced.

It was an interesting experience because I stopped watching my son Wyatt and I was watching this actor, and he was good. I’m watching him create a guy that I’m going to be playing at a different age and in a different time in a different era, and it really got me thinking, I was like, “This is it. This guy’s laying it down. I gotta get with it here. He’s good. It’s really good.”

Ronna Kress: Yeah, that was just a crazy idea that I had. I knew that they wanted to work together and they didn’t want to be father and son. So I pitched it to the group and everybody went for it. Then Kurt was so interested and excited. It was great. It works so well, too. The two of them are so great together. I met [Kurt] for the first time today and he was so lovely.

Chris Black: It was amazing. I grew up with Kurt, he’s an icon. He’s in some of my favorite movies of all time, so when the opportunity came up to do this show with him, it was like a dream come true. t’s interesting to watch them work together, because they’re both incredible actors, but their styles are not identical.

They really worked hard together to craft that character as a single character. They were both very aware, we’re playing the same guy. We’re not father and son. We’re playing the same character at different points in his life, and they would watch each other’s takes, they would sit behind the monitor, they would talk about it, they would rehearse scenes together. It was really interesting and fun to watch.

What The Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters Cast Hopes To See In Season 2

Monarch: Legacy of Monstersseason 2 has been green-lit and will be coming to Apple TV+ at some point. If you watched the final episode, then you know the major cliffhanger things were left on. The case reveals what they hope to see from their characters in season 2, and showrunner Chris Black teases what he can about the upcoming season.

Chris Black: I think our friends from Apple are here, so I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say. But it’s going to be big. It’s going to be great. We’re really excited and just so thrilled to have the opportunity to come back and keep telling this story. I think if you watched the season finale, and you get to the end of the season finale, I think you know what the teaser is.

Kiersey Clemons: I just want to play. I would love to be in disguises or something. That’s what I think of before I go to bed. I’m not even kidding. I talk to our people, and I’m like, “What if she was a spy of sorts?”

Anna Sawai: I hope that Cate has a little bit more agency because in season 1, she’s so lost. She’s running away from everything. She’s asking questions, but not really getting answers. I think that now that she knows about the underworld and what her family legacy is, I hope that she’s taking a little bit more action.

Joe Tippett: I’m just glad that they’re having me back. I’m happy to get to work with these guys more. I can’t wait for it.

About Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

After the world-shattering revelation that monsters are real, two siblings follow in their father’s footsteps to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch.

All episodes ofMonarch: Legacy of Monstersseason 1 are now streaming on Apple TV+.