Apple TV's 2-Part Sci-Fi Show Made A Near-Perfect Franchise Even Better

The Monsterverse also expanded into the television industry with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. The series chronicles the history of the Monarch organization from the films across two distinct timelines: 1952 and 2015. Not only did Monarch bring the Monsterverse to the small screen, however, it also ended up making the Monsterverse even better by adding a tremendous amount of lore and great new characters.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Makes The Humans & Lore Of The Monsterverse Even Better

The Monsterverse is, at its core, mainly about Godzilla, King Kong, and the other Titans. People watch these movies to see giant monsters fight and do cool things. The strength of the franchise was never in its human characters or its deep lore. Those elements were both there, and the lore of the Monsterverse specifically is quite engaging, but if there was any room for the franchise to improve, it would be in those two areas.

Luckily, improving the human characters and lore of the Monsterverse is exactly what Monarch: Legacy of Monsters set out to do. It accomplished that goal in spades, mainly by focusing on the origins of Monarch and going back further into the Monsterverse's timeline. Monarch gives the human characters in the Monsterverse new relevancy, makes them more empathetic, and actually gives the Monarch organization real stakes that create a suspenseful story.

Thanks to its prequel timeline, Monarch also gets a chance to fix some of the problems with the early Monsterverse movies, namely Godzilla 2014 and Kong: Skull Island. Those movies struggled the most with their human characters and trying to find a balance between them and the main attraction, the Titans. Monarch gives those humans more importance in the franchise, and it turns the earlier movies from easy-to-skip installments into great chapters of the Monsterverse.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters also makes the entire Monsterverse better just by being there. Aside from how it improves the humans and lore, Monarch is also just a great show. It has 80% approval on Rotten Tomatoes, it's one of the best sci-fi shows in recent years, and it handles its split timelines with incredible grace. Even if you're not invested in the Monsterverse, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is still just a great sci-fi show.

Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters Should Be Important To The Monsterverse's Future

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters did a lot to rehabilitate the early movies in the Monsterverse franchise, but it should also be important to the franchise going forward. The next Monsterverse movie, Godzilla X Kong: Supernova, is just over the horizon with its 2027 release date. We don't know exactly what the movie will focus on — some theories suggest SpaceGodzilla could arrive — Monarch should be important to it.

Take, for example, the ending of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 2. That ending introduced Rodan, and there's a possibility that the show's version of the Titan is actually a second Rodan. If that proves true, it wouldn't be far-fetched to see Rodan crop up in Supernova. Additionally, Titan X could show up again in the new movie, especially if her eggs are threatened once again.

More broadly, however, Monarch is going to be important to the future of the Monsterverse because it's already important. Monarch has introduced so much new lore about the Monarch organization and the world of the Monsterverse in general. If you haven't seen Monarch: Legacy of Monsters yet, you're missing out on one of the best and most detailed parts of the Monsterverse as a whole.