Godzilla’s latest return capped an excellent first season for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. The Apple TV Plus series’ season came to an end in January, and it gave us a pretty clear picture for how the show ties into future Godzilla movies. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for another season.
And as of April a second season is officially happening — and more! Apple TV Plus announced it is not only picking up Monarch for season 2, but also announced “multiple spinoff series based on the franchise.” Here’s everything we know about Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ second season.
Is Godzilla: Legacy of Monsters season 2 happening?
Yes! Apple TV Plus announced the renewal on April 11, 2024, promising to bring Godzilla back to the small screen — possibly in a couple different ways. In the same announcement, the streamer announced it had struck a multi-series deal with Legendary Entertainment for more series as well.
“We couldn’t be more excited for viewers to not only have the chance to experience even more thrills in season two, but to embark on epic, new journeys in the franchise, as we expand Legendary’s Monsterverse,” Morgan Wandell, head of international development for Apple TV Plus, said in a statement.
When will Godzilla: Legacy of Monsters season 2 be released?
It might not be any time soon. Since the show hasn’t announced production on the new season yet, we probably won’t be getting it until at least the back half of 2025, and maybe even later.
What is Kong doing in the Monarch season 1 finale?
A great question — in a meta way, he’s probably there to tee up Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which came out a few months after. But in the story, he’s simply another titan that’s passed through to our world.
Season 1’s finale left everyone in a strange place — literally, in the case of Shaw (Kurt Russell), who’s trapped in Axis Mundi. Cate (Anna Sawai) and Kentaro (Ren Watabe) meet their grandmother Keiko (Mari Yamamoto), and along with May (Kiersey Clemons) they all manage to escape back into our world, only to find that the situation has drastically changed.
For starters, Kentaro and his dad are now working with Apex Cybernetics. And they are very interested in evacuating the spot the Axis Mundi survivors just landed in, because Kong is angrily stomping through the trees nearby.
This may seem shocking, but technically Monarch has been set in the past — nestled in the timeline just after 2014’s Godzilla. By jumping ahead in time, we’re closer in-universe to the events of Godzilla vs. Kong.
What will season 2 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters be about?
Image: Apple TV Plus
Monarch could continue being the ground-level connective tissue between the Monsterverse movies. It could potentially further bridge Godzilla vs. Kong and The New Empire, but it could also be dealing with the fallout of the latter, if the series wants to jump ahead in time. Either way, the actors behind the main trio agree they’re excited to see their characters take more of an active role in the machinations of Monarch (and now Apex).
“I like that Cate finds purpose towards the end,” Sawai says of her character’s ending. “Because up until then she’s running away from everything. And she’s kind of forced into finding answers, and I think there is so much potential in where she’s going. I hope that if there is [a season 2], that we get to see her take [initiative] and walk with the confidence her grandma has.”
Clemons hopes a new season lets May “have to take responsibility for her actions” when it happens: “I want to see that put her in a position of choosing if she wants to be a person in power or not, and what she would do if she had a lot of power.”
Considering how close May and Cate were getting by the end of season 1, season 2 could lean into their relationship — possibly (hopefully?) by making it more overtly romantic.
“There’s an attraction. But that’s not the focus of the story,” Clemons says. “It’s kind of cool, because I feel like they just told us that this is where we kind of maybe want this to go, and I think it just happened organically, you know? We kept that in the back of our mind.
“If we have a season 2 it’s on,” Clemons laughs.
Your move, Legendary!
What other Godzilla content can I watch in the meantime?
While the wait for Monarch’s potential second season could be long, the good news is that there’s plenty of great Godzilla movies to watch until then. While you could always catch up on the decades of movies Godzilla has starred in since he burst onto the scene in 1954, you could also just stick to more modern fare. There’s Shin Godzilla from 2016, as well as 2023’s Godzilla Minus One. Of course, you could also go back through the rest of the Monsterverse to get ready for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which is set to hit theaters on March 29.
