Apple TV's Next Sci-Fi Shared Universe Is Just Getting Started

Ever since Marvel proved that a shared cinematic universe is an easy way to print money (at least, it was), we’ve seen DC, Star Wars, The Conjuring, and Universal Monsters attempt to create their own universe, with varying degrees of success. And now, the streamers are getting in on the action. The Boys, Prime Video’s parody of the MCU’s oversaturation, has become the very thing it sought to satirize, and as long as there are stories left to adapt from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga, HBO won’t stop making Game of Thrones spinoffs any time soon.

Apple TV has already created its own interconnected sci-fi universe with For All Mankind. The flagship show takes place in an America where the Space Race never ended, and its new spinoff, Star City, takes a look on the other side of the Iron Curtain, and tells the same story from the Soviet perspective. Now that Star City has proven to be a big hit, Apple is looking at the other shows in its library and wondering if they have similar spinoff potential.

Ted Lasso’s fourth season will feel a bit like a spinoff, as it pivots from the familiar men’s team to the all-new women’s team, and you could easily expand the world of Pluribus into a spinoff or two. But before that, Apple has announced a new prequel to Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, exploring the early life of Lee Shaw, with Wyatt Russell reprising his role.

Even with this new prequel, Apple has only just scratched the surface of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ franchise potential. Set in the MonsterVerse, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters tells its tale across half a century, as we see the eponymous Monarch organization struggle to contain Godzilla and Kong and all the other iconic movie monsters that have been dubbed “Titans” in this continuity. The prequel was officially greenlit back in November. Joby Harold, the guy who spearheaded Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series (a mixed bag, to put it nicely), will serve as the showrunner, and the story will take place during the Cold War in 1984, as Lee attempts to stop the Soviets from unleashing a Titan on American soil.

Throughout its first and second seasons, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has done a great job of expanding the lore and mythology of the MonsterVerse. The franchise’s big-screen outings, like Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, are beholden to a formulaic three-act structure, and they’re often driven by big VFX spectacle.

But Monarch: Legacy of Monsters can’t use that spectacle as a crutch, because it needs to keep audiences coming back week after week. It has some dazzling VFX, but the show itself is driven by its characters, and by the mysteries of the Titans. The movies all follow more or less the same structure — a monster starts wreaking havoc, the humans caught in the crossfire have to think of a solution, and in the end, someone saves the day — so there’s not much room to dig deeper. But the TV show has all the time in the world to dig deeper, and explore that mythology and that complicated history.

Other Monarch Spinoffs Apple TV Should Explore After Lee Shaw's Prequel

Lee’s prequel is a nice start, but it shouldn’t be the only spinoff from Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Apple could finally facilitate the long-touted crossover between the MonsterVerse and the Pacific Rim franchise.

Apple could remake the original King Kong story as a limited series, so it has more time to explore the characters’ relationships and the consequences of Kong’s rampage. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and the MonsterVerse as a whole, is a goldmine of spinoff potential.