Godzilla Is About To Eat Your Kids In First Look At Streaming Series
As longtime Godzilla fans know very well, this killer kaiju isn’t the only giant monster in his universe, which is why the giant lizard has tangled with monsters ranging from Mothra to King Kong. Now, as The Hollywood Reporter reports, we’ve gotten our first good look at Apple TV+’s upcoming Godzilla show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
As the name implies, the series will feature several different kaiju, but Godzilla is taking center stage, as we can see from a photo where he is apparently close enough to a school bus to snack on some helpless students.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is the first streaming series in the revitalized Monsterverse that started with 2014’s Godzilla.
It looks like this show will be particularly popular among fans of Legendary’s existing Monsterverse movies. In addition to starring familiar creatures such as Godzilla, the show’s title refers to the fact it will prominently feature Monarch, an organization from these films responsible for tracking kaiju worldwide. Aside from giving us more scaly slaughters courtesy of Godzilla, it looks like the most interesting thing about this show is that it will tell a story that spans generations.
In order to tell a generations-spanning story, this Godzilla show will feature Kurt Russell and his son, Wyatt Russell, playing the same character at different stages of his life. In an age of shows and films frequently digitally de-aging actors in order to provide us with a younger-looking version, this approach to providing a younger version of an iconic actor is very refreshing.
Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt Russell will star in the Godzilla-centric Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, but the father and son duo won’t share scenes together.
It helps, of course, that Wyatt is very nearly the spitting image of his famous father in his younger years, and this adds a welcome layer of verisimilitude to a show that we can only hope embraces some of the campier elements of its original source material.
The Russells will be playing two versions of the same character, Lee Shaw, who is contacted by two siblings whose family quest drives the show’s plot. Once they discover that they have a family connection to the Monarch organization, the siblings begin getting closer and closer to the truth (presumably, closer and closer to kaiju, such as Godzilla), leading them to consult with Shaw, an Army officer.
We don’t know much about Shaw aside from the official description that “Monarch is threatened by what Shaw knows,” and the description further reads that the show will “reveal buried secrets and the ways that epic, earth-shattering events can reverberate through our lives.” And while the show’s approach to providing multiple versions of Shaw is different from the Marvel school of digital de-aging, it’s interesting to note the show has strong connections to MCU. It is being co-developed by Matt Fraction (whose Hawkeye comic influenced the live-action show), and Wandavision director Matt Shakman directed the first two episodes.
Apple already looks like it has a hit on its hands bringing Godzilla to its streaming service with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
Ultimately, while only time will tell if this Godzilla show will be any good, we’ve got a good feeling about Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. In addition to the strong creative pedigree behind the show, its connection to the Monsterverse hopefully means it will be as good as previous franchise movies such as Godzilla vs. Kong.
If nothing else, we’re confident that the show will be much better than the 1998 Godzilla film starring Matthew Broderick, but that’s truly damning this show with the faintest of praise.
