The new Apple TV+ series, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” takes place at a very specific moment in the MonsterVerse timeline.
As the MonsterVerse expands its universe with a TV series – Monarch: Legacy of Monsters which was just released on Apple TV+ – some clarifications are in order for Godzilla fans. We must first allow them to understand where it takes place in the Monsterverse timeline.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters follows several agents of Monarch, this secret organization dedicated to the search for Titans. It served as a common thread between all the films that are part of the MonsterVerse. Plot details have been scarce so far, but there have been some developments as to what part of Monarch’s story the series is following.
If the MonsterVerse films have been praised for the importance they give to action and Kaijus, they have rather neglected the human characters. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters takes the opposite approach to the films to put humans at the center of its story.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters takes place in the 1950s and 2010s
The series created by Chris Black and Matt Fraction covers both the origins of the Monarch organization in the 1950s and the period surrounding the modern resurgence of Godzilla and his battle against the MUTOs circa 2014. Part of the chronological series takes place so in 2014, after Godzilla’s battle in San Francisco as seen in the first film.
The series explores the history of Monarch through three family generations, all assembled around a central character: that of Kurt Russell who plays a mysterious army officer named Lee Shaw, and his son Wyatt Russell plays a younger version of the same character.
Shaw’s journey serves as a connecting thread between the 1950s and the 2010s. As has been mentioned in several Monsterverse films, Monarch was originally founded to track down and study Godzilla after he was awakened by the nuclear tests in the 1950s, which is also when the military tried to kill him.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is currently available on Apple TV+.