Nothing about Monarch: Legacy of Monsters should work. When the show launched on Apple TV back in 2023, it occupied a dubious spot in Legendary’s growing Monsterverse, which encompasses all the Godzilla and King Kong films after 2014’s Godzilla reboot. Monarch’s mission in 2023 is the same as its mission with Season 2 in 2026: to tell a story set after that 2014 movie, but before everything else, as well as charting the organization’s rise in the 1950s and 1960s, too. In doing so, Monarch has become a show as much about time jumps and time travel as it is about monsters. But, in Season 2, the series attempts something honest and largely successful: It aims to make its monster show focused even more on giant monsters and the real people left in their wake of destruction.
Here’s the good, the monstrous, and the wibbly-wobbly time-wimey aspects of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and why it remains one of the most unique and compelling sci-fi dramas on TV.
