The new Godzilla-inspired series explores the aftermath of a lethal monster attack that leaves citizens in deep distress and fear.
Calling all sci-fi fans! AppleTV+ is releasing a brand new series set in the Monsterverse, best known for the most recent Godzilla and King Kong movies. The series is called Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. It tells a new story set after the Godzilla film from 2014. It stars Cate Randa and Ren Watabe who play siblings that discover their family’s connection to a secret monster hunting organization known as Monarch.
This show was co-developed and executive produced by Chris Black (Severance, Desperate Housewives) and Matt Fraction (Marvel Comics). I asked Black what inspired him to develop this series and how he thinks his and Fraction’s various perspectives have helped them work together.
“We both come to this story from a place of fandom…the fact that we were entrusted with the opportunity to create a TV show-the first live action TV show set in this world. We’re still pinching ourselves over that,” Black said.
“One of the reasons we’ve worked together so well…Matt has great experience…in the comic book world of thinking on a huge canvas. It’s anything you can imagine or draw you can do…” Black said. It just really felt like we complimented each other both in terms of our skill sets and our experience,” Black said.
I also spoke with the show’s visual effects supervisor, Sean Konrad, who previously worked on the 2014 remake of Godzilla.
I asked Konrad if there were any visual aspects of the film that he took as inspiration and if there were any creative choices he made in order to make the series different for those who are well versed in the visuals of the film.
“Working on Godzilla (2014) as an artist, I really got to see inside how, what are the challenges of making Godzilla feel big? Making his movements feel real,” said Konrad.
Taking that forward, that was obviously a huge inspiration for us, that we wanted to be true and authentic to the character and its history but also, find ways to show it in different ways,” said Konrad.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters‘ premieres globally on Friday, November 17, followed by one episode every Friday through January 12 on Apple TV+.
