While the first 6 episodes were screened in advance, for embargo reasons, most story details will be kept as vague as possible.

With Apple’s ability to spend on massive budgets and their insistence on acquiring more familiar Hollywood intellectual properties for the hope of more eyeballs, 2023’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters premiered in November of that year to a surprisingly pleasant reception. Built around a franchise that, in its American incarnation, is largely known as being dumb, stupid fun to varying degrees of success, Monarch’s ability to reserve its reliance on its flagship monsters in favor of more character-based storytelling (something that remains a weakness in nearly every Monsterverse film) was seen as being more compelling than expected. It was even coming off of the phenomenon that was Toho’s Godzilla Minus One, in which the writing and character work is what makes that film great. So even by comparison to that Oscar-winning film, this wasn’t a total embarrassment for Apple.

But while the Monarch series is definitely a narrative improvement on its preceding films, it still couldn’t shake flaws of its own. Despite a compelling core cast, Monarch is, at the end of the day, still stuck being about the titular Monarch, the covert organization that investigates all of the monster madness (UNIT in Doctor Who terms) who exist primarily for exposition reasons and to be a back-and-forth scientific ally or foe for our primary protagonists. Both the first and now second season cannot make the authoritative suits who expectedly make all the wrong ethical decisions or those behind the computer screens worth investing in. One particular character from the first season meets an unfortunate fate in the premiere episode and its emotional impact is at a flat zero. On top of that, its first season bent over backwards to fit into the spaghetti of its Godzilla-based timeline, causing whiplash as it zipped back and forth trying to fill in details from past decades, while resisting revealing certain confusing plot beats until closer to its finale.

The second season attempts to squeeze even more unspoken story points into the “past” timeline featuring young Col. Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell), Bill Randa (the still miscast Anders Holm), and Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), who in the midst of their love triangle investigate a strange cult that worships the ferocious sea-based monster we will only know as Titan X. Despite most of the important plot beats of these characters’ already being covered by Season One, there is technically still years to play in filling more gaps and finding new adventures for our trio of the past.

In regards to our present day cast, this is really just the Kurt Russell/Anna Sawai show. Having exploded after Shogun (that phenomenon premiering just months after Monarch‘s debut), Sawai, as Cate Randa, expectedly gets the most story weight of the main young cast with the season premiere episode kicking off with an event that leaves Cate in a state of terrible guilt as well as a surprising connection to our new Titan. The first season ended with Russell being trapped in Hollow Earth after his own self-sacrifice to trap an Ion Dragon. His reintroduction this season happens right away, and is technically no spoiler as he is all over the marketing for this return, a rescue mission that must take place on Skull Island.

Godzilla, the flagship monster of this universe, was the big selling point of the first season, with a few episodes delivering fun reappearances for the titular big lizard. This season, the screen time is pivoted to his hairy counterpart, Kong. (Don’t worry, Godzilla is teased with a return soon!) There is something nice about this crew visiting the world of Kong: Skull Island (2017), one of the more enjoyable Monsterverse films, and Kong, still canonically years away from his battle with Godzilla in Godzilla v Kong (2021), is still king of his domain and an intimidating onscreen presence. The visual effects in this series continue to impress, feeling not a ounce lesser than what we get on the big screen. This season, even more than the last, lets its action sequences play out as big, loud, and cinematic as needed.

Where the other human characters are concerned, only Ren Watabe as Kentaro and Kiersey Clemons as May get the short end of the stick. Clemons has a strong onscreen personality, and even gets a heist sequence that mostly showcases her, but her narrative this season feels less integral this time out. Watabe is stuck with a mopey role that never takes the front seat or gives him much agency. His father Hiroshi, played by the dynamic Takehiro Hira, and his grandmother Keiko, get the most interesting character work of the season as they face the challenges of their family reunion, both now the same age. Yamamoto may get the most screen time this season in general, due to her being rescued from the time-warped Hollow Earth and now a major role in both time period halves, and makes a big impression. New cast additions such as Cliff Curtis and Amber Midthunder are underwritten, but hopefully will get more substantial material down the road.

It would be easy to dismiss Monarch as “more of the same”, especially as the films are already showing their exhaust, but comparatively, this is a cleaner, meaner, and more confident second go-around. If left largely unimpressed by this world, this will glaze over your head as much as any other entry, but it’s hard to argue that this series has more compelling more strengths than even the films can accomplish. As easy to consume as Saturday morning cereal, but also pleasantly capable of being taken just seriously enough.

The second season of “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” premieres February 27, 2026 on Apple TV+.