Helmed by Chris Black and Matt Fraction, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 follows the aftermath of the Season 1 finale, with Keiko, Cate, May, and Shaw returning to a 2017 Skull Island now controlled by Monarch in an uneasy partnership with Apex Cybernetics. The story centers on combating a massive new titan dubbed “Titan X”, while exploring the emotional fallout of Keiko’s return to the modern world and the 1950s events that may unlock the mysteries of the new threat in the present.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters ended up being a surprisingly compelling and well-crafted series, serving up a strong first season with compelling characters, investing storylines, incredible effects, and awesome expansions of the ongoing Monsterverse. So naturally I was very excited to see what season 2 had in store with its continuation after the crazy season 1 finale, the inclusion of Kong, the exploration of Apex, and the introduction of a new titan. After watching all ten episodes, did this season end up living up to expectations? For the most part, yes. Season 2 is a fantastic continuation of the series that continues to deliver strong character work fueled by great performances in a larger-than-life sci-fi journey involving monsters, evil organizations and crazy realms.
The Monsterverse gets further expansion while also focusing on its own unique story that naturally transitions from the more grounded tone of the first season inspired by Godzilla (2014) into the more fantastical tone we have been given in certain installments like Godzilla King of the Monsters, which this series is gradually leading up to. While it walks a very fine line between being taken seriously and being incredibly silly, it managed to still be very investing by continuing the best elements of the first season and expanding upon them in this season.
This season sees the return of all the major characters from the previous season in both timelines, and once again they end up being the best developed human characters in the entirety of the Monsterverse, even when being given new arcs and expansions. We get the return of Cate Randa, reprised wonderfully by Anna Sawai, whose return from Axis Mundi has changed her completely, not just physically but mentally as well. In this season she makes a mysterious yet interesting connection with the titans, more specifically the new Titan X, resulting in her perspective on the monsters being changed from fearing them to wanting to understanding them. It results in her embracing the family legacy started by her grandmother in Monarch decades ago and a personal journey that sees her grow significantly from the PTSD ridden individual she once was from season 1. Anna Sawai does a wonderful job making us feel for Cate on her special journey and continuing to make us care for her character.
Kentaro Randa, reprised by Ren Watabe, also endures his own personal journey that begins with embracing his legacy in Monarch after reuniting with his father, but slowly devolves into a darker path that results in him making consequential decisions that threaten to tear both his family and the world apart. Seeing Kentaro go through a tragic fall from grace as a result of shocking events that occur this season was a truly unexpected direction for the character, yet ends up being completely understandable when you see what he is going through. Ren Watabe does a great job making his emotional arc feel believable through his performance and makes me intrigued to see where things might go for him in the future.
May Olowe-Hewitt, reprised greatly by Kiersey Clemons, continues her own unique journey when she is forced to confront her past through her former employer, Apex Cybernetics, who wish to use her skills to achieve their personal goal of superiority over Monarch when it comes to dealing with titan threats. Caught between helping her friends and working for her enemies, May endures endless moral struggles this season that I found to be interesting even if it had slightly frustrating moments.
Hiroshi Randa, reprised by Takehiro Hira, takes a more central role in this season as we get an excellent deep dive into his character and what caused him to make the impactful choices that would drag his two families into his world of monster hunting. In the absence of his mother Keiko and his stepfather Bill, Hiroshi grew into Monarch alone and that immense loneliness is what drives him to make the terrible decisions he’s made that puts him at odds with his family that he attempts to reconnect with as they handle a new threat together. I didn’t think I was going to like this character much after his actions in the previous season but once getting the full story you begin to understand him and the performance by Takehiro Hira elevates the character on an emotional level.
Once again serving as the heart of the story is Keiko Randa, reprised beautifully by Mari Yamamoto, who we get to see further explored both in the 1950s leading up to her entry into Axis Mundi and her resurgence in the present where she’s dealing with the many years and events she had missed. We have seen the “person out of time” trope before but rather than following the usual generic routes Keiko goes an emotionally complex journey of catching up with the time she lost while also resuming her original duty to Monarch even when Monarch has become a shell of its former self. You really feel for her character throughout the whole season and the interactions she shares with the rest of the modern cast, including her family, is both beautiful and heartbreaking to witness as she wishes she could have lived the lifetime she missed and saved the people who she lost in her absence.
Lee Shaw returns, reprised by both Kurt and Wyatt Russell, and is once again a truly compelling character in both present and past, respectively. The Russells truly give their all to the performance of this character in both timelines, making us understand the layers behind him and show that he’s more than a hardened military mind but a broken-hearted individual who’s been through so much to this point. Personally, I felt Wyatt’s performance as 50’s Shaw was the better of the two due to the immense emotional depth he gives to him in such heartbreaking moments.
Bill Randa, reprised by Anders Holm, might honestly be the most fleshed out and tragic character in the Monsterverse. Not only do we get a further expansion of his life both before and after the disappearance of Reiko but we also get a completely new perspective of his fateful mission to Skull Island that retcons his original motives for going there in the film Kong Skull Island. He gave up everything to not just save Monarch, or prove his life wasn’t meaningless, but to try and find his wife and best friend by any chance through Skull Island due to its connection with Hollow Earth and therefore Axis Mundi. He wasn’t able to succeed and would of course die lunceremoniously as seen in the film but to see the journey leading up to that point was extremely well written and wonderfully performed by Anders Holm.
Also getting a massive upgrade this season is Tim, reprised by Joe Tippett, who goes from being a comedic and overzealous Monarch office worker to a compelling and more competent leader who is trying his best to maintain the core values of Monarch in the modern era that were established by Keiko in the past. Sure he still has some comedic moments but this time around I felt I could take him more seriously due to the way he evolves and prove that he isn’t useless in the eyes of others who deem him lesser.
We get the return of Apex Cybernetics represented through Brenda Holland, reprised by Dominique Tipper, who are actively trying to sabotage Monarch’s mission against Titan X for their own gain. It’s revealed that Apex doesn’t seek to study or kill the Titans but rather find ways of controlling them through advanced technology for various gains. While some in Apex seek to profit off of them, others seek to re-establish humans as the dominant species on Earth after the events of G-Day, which is an interesting motive and a great connection to what would lead Apex to create Mechagodzilla years later during the events of Godzilla vs Kong.
It’s awesome to see Apex get more development than just remaining as a one dimensional evil corporation and to see the various actions of the group result in the creation of a third party that gets thrown into the mix in the later half of the season. I won’t say much about the character leading this third party other than she is played wonderfully by Amber Midthunder giving a solid performance that gives her immense presence in the season.
And then we come to the titans and various monsters that get featured this season who are a bit more frequent in this season than they were in the previous season but still used at regulated levels. Godzilla and Kong are both featured this season, but mainly serve as special guest stars that only come into the story when it narratively makes sense and have incredible sequences that maintain their established motives and personalities as heroic monsters established in the films. And as always both of them are brought to life through fantastic effects even when on a lower budget compared to the films.
However, the main titan who serves as the most central character in this season with the most screen time is the newly introduced Titan X. She is a completely original titan made for the Monsterverse who at first seemed like she was going to be another evil titan like the MUTOs and Skar King but in a surprising twist is shown to not be evil as Monarch and Apex believe her to be. This goes to show little humanity knows about how titans behave at this point in the Monsterverse and that not all of them have malicious intent. Titan X honestly proves to be a great original titan character that looks gorgeous in design, awesome in action and given a lot of emotional expression thanks to amazing effects. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up getting a lot of fans from the Kaiju fanbase.
With the introduction of a new titan and further exploration of the time-displaced realm of Axis Mundi, the narrative of this season transitions from a grounded character-driven sci-fi thriller into a grand-scale sci-fi adventure that embraces more of the fantasy elements we are familiar with in the Monsterverse films after Godzilla (2014). Not everyone may like this transition but to be honest, I ended up being fine with it due to the way it is handled with care and the fact it is still very character-driven. While there is some drama between characters it doesn’t steer away from the main focus and offers a great balance between the past and present storylines that both felt equally investing. It also manages to deliver some great twists and doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to emotions while simultaneously expanding the monsterverse by addressing various plot threads and elements of the films that this season’s events are leading up to.
Besides further expanding upon Axis Mundi, we also end up properly returning to Skull Island for the first time in live action since the 2017 film, which was honestly awesome to see again after all this time, with some new monsters added in to make it even more dangerous to embark on. I will admit there were moments that I felt this season tended to drag in terms of pacing that I felt could have been cut down or cut out entirely due to not having much point towards the plot or characters but they didn’t ruin the season for me at all. The season concludes with a fun and thrilling finale that sets the stage for an interesting direction for a potential season 3 that will feature a certain titan that I did not expect to be revealed for this series but has made me feel very excited for what is to come.
This season’s monster action, cinematography, effects and sets are all absolutely incredible across the board, featuring way more visual beauty compared to the previous season. With this season going bigger in terms of scale and stakes it made sense for the technical elements to enhance everything to match that scale making it look and feel like an epic sci-fi adventure. Skull Island is brought to life beautifully through mostly practical sets while Axis Mundi is a wonderful combination of both practical and CGI effects that make it look alien in nature but absolutely stunning.
In terms of monster action, Titan X delivers the most throughout the season, and we do end up getting two massive titan fights with her going against Godzilla and Kong in two separate but uniquely epic fights that are worth the long build-up.
Returning to do the music for this season is composer Leopold Ross, who once again delivers a solid score that blends sci-fi synth with orchestral ambience that amplifies every moment of this season from the big to the small.
This second season was a lot of fun to watch and continues to be a very investing installment of the Monsterverse, even as its style and narrative evolve into different territory. If the third season continues to maintain the quality of these past two seasons, or improve things further, then there’s a high chance this series will firmly become one of my main favorites in the Monsterverse. I’m going to give Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 an A = 96.
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