Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

(Season 2, Episode 1, “Cause and Effect”)

Season One of Apple TV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters promised titanic kaiju action hitched to classic Kurt Russell one liners. And while the show delivered that in bursts, most of the season moved at a Godzilla-in-no-rush pace. Family drama across dual timelines soaked up screen time while Monarch tried to become the Legendary Pictures’ version of SHIELD, albeit with fewer eyepatches.

Season Two wastes little time correcting that. The premiere actually delivers on the marketing copy. Titans throw their weight around. The Hollow Earth rift crackles with danger. And Kurt Russell finally gets to be Kurt Russell. Here is hoping this momentum is not a one episode sugar rush.

Title: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Release Date: February 2026 (Season 2)
Creator: Chris Black // Matt Fraction
Network: Apple TV

IMDb Plot: Decades after being presumed dead, Keiko’s return shocks Monarch. Cate defies orders to save Shaw-and unleashes a terrifying new Titan.

Joe Says: If Monarch keeps its focus on titans, tension, and letting Kurt Russell do what Kurt Russell does best, this could finally be the MonsterVerse series that stomps instead of strolls.

The premiere opens with an effective merging of the two family threads. Keiko Randa (Mari Yamamoto) survives Hollow Earth and rejoins the present day narrative although the series still leans into its Lost and Arrow inspired timeline gymnastics. Flashbacks to the 1950s with Wyatt Russell as young Lee Shaw parallel the modern day kaiju hijinks. Admittedly, the structure works best when it fuels monster mayhem rather than emotional processing sessions.

Season One ended with the older Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) sacrificing himself to close the rift to Hollow Earth, which was getting the attention of an irate King Kong. For those who have seen the Season Two trailer, no surprise, Shaw gets better. Even better news is that screenwriter and executive producer Chris Black finally realized that he’s got 80s action movie icon Kurt Russell as a cast member and started throwing him in situations that only someone with the reflexes of Jack Burton can survive. (And please, for the love of Egg Shen, go watch Big Trouble In Little China right now if you didn’t catch that knife throw of a reference.)

So while Shaw the younger, Randa and her husband Bill (Anders Holm, playing the character brought to life by John Goodman in Kong: Skull Island) go monster hunting the past, the modern day Randa family, half-sibs Cate (Shogun’s Anna Sawai) and Kentaro (Ren Watabe), deal with the bureaucracy of the growing Monarch while wanting to rescue Shaw the elder. To do so they have to reopen the rift into Hollow Earth… which means a certain giant ape is bound to go bananas. And oh yeah, there are plenty of creatures, both great and small, that our heroes need to evade, stab, and just plain survive from. Dangling teaser: someone from the Skull Island away team ain’t making the helio home.

While the episode offers plenty of fun titan action, not everything roars. When the action pauses, conversations slide into exposition heavy therapy sessions about past relationships (the always fantastic Takehiro Hira plays father to both but with separate mothers), corporate ethics (courtesy of Kiersey Clemons’ May), and head-scratchingly placed generational angst. The dialogue lands with the grace of Mechagodzilla in Midtown Tokyo. Fortunately, the high-end creature-feature monster madness is impressive, the scale feels bigger, and the premiere embraces the fan service without drowning in it.

And while the big, green King of the Monsters is suspiciously absent, the other King of the jungle provides plenty of swing. If Monarch keeps its focus on titans, tension, and letting Kurt Russell do what Kurt Russell does best, this could finally be the MonsterVerse series that stomps instead of strolls.