There’s no reason this show should work. When it premiered on Apple TV in 2023, it held a questionable position within Legendary’s expanding MonsterVerse—home to all Godzilla and King Kong films post the 2014 Godzilla reboot. Monarch’s goal in 2023 was the same as it is for Season 2 in 2026: to weave a narrative set after that 2014 movie but before subsequent events, while also tracing the organization’s origins in the 1950s and 1960s. In doing so, Monarch has evolved into a series that’s as much about time jumps and time travel as it is about monsters. However, Season 2 takes a refreshing and mostly successful approach: it strives to shift the focus even more toward giant monsters and the ordinary people affected by their destruction.
Let’s break down the highlights, the monstrous elements, and the mind-bending time-related twists of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and explain why it continues to be one of TV’s most distinct and gripping sci-fi dramas.
Picking up right where Season 1 ended, Kate Randa (Anna Sawai) has come out of Axis Mundi—the timeless Hollow Earth realm. It’s now 2017 instead of 2015, and the characters are all on the notorious Skull Island, which lets the show dive into the wild, off-the-wall world of smaller creatures that don’t quite measure up to titans like Kong or Godzilla. With these touches, Monarch is delivering something old-school Kong fans might not have realized they wanted: random, eerie monsters making their presence felt, even if they don’t drive the plot significantly.
Let’s dwell on this point for a moment: In the 1933 King Kong, the iconic giant ape took down a T. rex and clashed with Pterodactyls on an island full of Apatosauruses. Having creatures—especially smaller ones—scurrying around and jumping out unexpectedly is key to a great monster movie. Even if you have mixed feelings about the 1998 Godzilla, those tiny baby Godzillas added to the excitement of the main monster.
Monarch Season 2 gets this “small vs. large” dynamic. New 1950s flashbacks reveal that the younger Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell), Keiko (Mari Yamamoto), and Bill Randa (Anders Holm) encountered unusual medium-sized monsters linked to a new colossal sea creature called Titan X. In the present day, the older Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) is clearly fed up with all this chaos, and his frustration with the modern Monarch—an organization he co-founded—is both relatable and a bit enigmatic.
Though Season 2 keeps some of Season 1’s structure—present-day monster conflicts illuminated by flashbacks—Lee’s time jump to the 1980s isn’t explored here; those retro monster moments are being saved for his upcoming spinoff. Shaw’s bond with Keiko also deepens in Season 2, since Keiko’s time-bending trip through Axis Mundi lets her interact with both the young and old versions of Shaw.
That said, Season 2’s strength—and what makes it more lighthearted than Season 1—is that most characters are united from the start, functioning (for the most part) as a monster-hunting team. Season 1 spent roughly half its runtime on the mystery of what was happening and how Kate and Kentaro’s father tied into Monarch. Now, Season 2 has moved past the character introduction phase and is focused on throwing them into the thick of the action.
So if you thought Season 1’s slow build was a bit too dragging, Season 2 delivers higher-energy action with more monsters and bigger stakes, all unfolding at a quicker pace. To quote George Lucas’s famous director’s note, Season 2’s vibe compared to Season 1 is: faster and more intense.
Still, Season 2’s core lies in its character relationships, which are more engaging because they span multiple generations and time periods. If the show were only set in the 1950s or the 2010s, the monster-hunting premise would lose its charm fast. Season 1 revealed that Godzilla, Kong, and other titans are essentially time travelers—an idea that subtly boosts their significance and turns them into characters as vital as the humans pursuing them.
Does Titan X evoke the same feeling? Kind of. The new sea monster threat, Titan X, solves a key storytelling challenge: When we’re rooting for Godzilla and Kong to stay safe, is there a monster we can (at least at first) fear?
Season 2 addresses this by centering much of its plot on our curiosity and fear of this unknown monster. Fortunately, if the new sea monster isn’t your thing, Godzilla and Kong are still present, alongside a likable, skilled group of humans you’ll care about in both past and present timelines.