'Monarch: Legacy of Monsters' Season 2 Review: Apple TV's MonsterVerse Show Doubles Down on Spectacle

What Is 'Monarch: Legacy of Monsters' Season 2 About?

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 picks up immediately where Season 1 left off. Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe) and his father, Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira), have successfully rescued his half-sister, Cate (Anna Sawai), and his former lover, May (Kiersey Clemons), from the realm known as Axis Mundi, home to the many Titans, including Godzilla. Along with them is Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), Hiroshi's mother and Cate and Kentaro's grandmother, who disappeared into Axis Mundi in 1959. Left behind in Axis Mundi is the elder Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell), who sacrifices himself to ensure the women's return.

Season 2 sees Cate and Keiko desperate to return to Axis Mundi to rescue Lee, and they want to use Skull Island, Kong's home, to do it. Meanwhile, Apex Cybernetics, the company that funded Kentaro and Hiroshi's efforts to reach Axis Mundi in the first place, has plans for this new realm. Things are further complicated by the arrival of a new creature known only as Titan X, which Keiko first encountered in 1958 alongside the young Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell) and Bill Randa (Anders Holm). Monarch: Legacy of Monsters also sees the return of Joe Tippett as Tim, an enthusiastic and idealist employee at Monarch, Mirelly Taylor as Natalia Verdugo, Monarch's Deputy Director, and Dominique Tipper as Brenda Holland, May's superior at Apex Cybernetics, who has an ambitious and dangerous plan for the Titans. Joining the cast in Season 2 are Prey breakout Amber Midthunder as Isabel, a mysterious businesswoman, and Cliff Curtis as an Apex employee.

'Monarch: Legacy of Monsters' Season 2 Is Strongest When Focusing on the Titans

The giant monster genre is extremely tough to get right. Its main appeal is the massive creatures rampaging across cities, but the human characters need to be compelling enough to ground the devastation. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 1 mostly got it right with a collection of interesting figures, both past and present, led by both versions of Lee Shaw. Season 2 keeps the same cast mostly intact, but their stories are far less compelling than before.

Thus, Season 2 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is strongest when focusing on the Titans. Without treading into spoiler territory, this season's Titan X is among the most interesting additions to the MonsterVerse, and quite possibly the franchise's first truly great creation, certainly worthy of standing alongside Toho's champions. The design is striking without being overly elaborate (Toho's monsters are famous for their simplicity), and its role in the story is more important than viewers would expect.

As for the King of the Monsters and the King of Skull Island, both Godzilla and Kong show up, but they play second fiddle. Kong has the larger role this time around, given that his home is a key location throughout the season, while the King of the Monsters does get a chance to let out his famous roar. As for the VFX that brings these creatures to life, the team behind the Apple TV show spared no expense, as Godzilla, Kong, and Titan X look fully realized. The backgrounds are less convincing in certain scenes, but Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 benefits from shooting on location, giving many of its best sequences a more tactile and immersive look.

'Monarch: Legacy of Monsters' Season 2 Fails Its Two Main Characters

Sadly, not all is great in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2, with one major flaw in the show's approach to its two de facto lead characters, Cate and Kentaro Randa. In an effort to give them more agency, the series reduces them to their past trauma, having them commit a series of questionable choices that make it really hard to root for them, let alone find them compelling. In fact, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 commits the cardinal sin of monster projects: it renders Cate and Kentaro frustratingly, annoyingly stupid. They're the type of characters to run towards the rampaging monsters, and not for any particularly good reason.

That's not to say that characters should be flawless; in fact, being fallible is what often makes a protagonist interesting and well-rounded. Both versions of Lee Shaw make their fair share of mistakes in Season 2, but they acknowledge and own up to their faults. Moreover, both the young and the old Shaw act from a sheer sense of duty and commitment to those they love and, more importantly, the world as a whole. But Cate and Kentaro act as though they are the only ones at stake, risking both their human companions and the Titans in pursuit of their goals. It doesn't help that Cate and Kentaro have more plot armor than Arya Stark escaping from King's Landing, and at one point, it becomes quite absurd. That said, the direction that Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is seemingly taking with Cate's character is admittedly intriguing ahead of a potential Season 3.

Beyond the Randa siblings, Kiersey Clemons' May has considerable screentime, but she's not given much meaningful material to work with. Even the attraction May apparently felt for Cate, which was strongly hinted at the end of Season 1, fails to play any meaningful role in Season 2. It's a genuine shame, since both characters could've benefited from a more intimate story. As for Tim, he remains the perfect adventure sidekick, with Tippett an undeniable scene stealer. Hira explores Hiroshi's complicated situation in more depth, but his relationships with both Cate and Kentaro remain painfully underdeveloped. In contrast, his bond with Keiko is strong, adding a layer of complexity to this multi-generational tale.

Speaking of Keiko, she's been the most fascinating player in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters since Season 1, and that remains true in Season 2. She's curious but level-headed, strong-willed but logical and pragmatic, a scientist through and through whose thirst for discovery never clouds her judgment or outweighs her priorities. In addition to being the show's most gripping character, Mari Yamamoto thankfully earns a spot at the center of the action, since Keiko appears in both timelines and shares crucial dynamics with characters past and present.

By contrast, however, the show's insistence on sidelining young Lee Shaw and Bill Randa remains puzzling. As was the case in Season 1, the characters' past versions are most prominent in the first half of the season before taking a backseat later. It's especially confusing, considering Bill might just be the most singular character in this story, a man driven by curiosity whose larger-than-life theories turned out to be true, and who eventually made it all the way to 1973 before perishing on Skull Island. Bill is Monarch, the one character in this ensemble who cares about the Titans more than Keiko. Meanwhile, the show's most convincing and captivating dynamic is between young Lee and Keiko, and it would benefit Monarch: Legacy of Monsters to do more with their doomed lovers' arc.

'Monarch: Legacy of Monsters' Season 2 Is Strong Enough for Fans To Demand a Renewal

Overall, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 is another solid building block in the MonsterVerse. It knocks it out of the park where it matters most, offering exhilarating monster mayhem and a new Titan that's more than worth the price of admission — or the Apple TV subscription. Sure, the Randa siblings are a considerable nuisance, but the strength of Keiko, as well as both versions of Shaw, Hiroshi, and Bill, make up for the cracks in this ensemble.

The hope is that Monarch: Legacy of Monsters returns for Season 3, and that it doesn't take another two years for fans to see these Titans on-screen again. With how big a role Apex plays in this narrative, and how much Walter Simmons is name-dropped throughout the season, it's hard not to wonder if Demián Bichir will appear later on. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 mostly satisfies with a story that puts the Titans front and center — exactly where fans want to see them.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 premieres Friday, February 27, airing weekly through May 1.