Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters Sets The Stage For A Kong-Centric Season 2
"Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" was a pleasant surprise. The show delivered kaiju action worthy of the big screen, while also presenting a more compelling human story than any of the movies in the MonsterVerse so far. Part of that was down to its smaller scale and a point of view that is closer to the ground than the movies. Though Godzilla showed up a couple of times to big effect, it's the story of two people who discovered they are half-brothers that made the show worth watching.
Throughout the first season we followed a mystery box surrounding the birth of the secret organization, Monarch, as well as scientist Hiroshi Randa's efforts to prevent another catastrophe like G-Day. Through the main plot, the show got closer and closer to the plot of "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," bringing back the Hollow Earth that allows the Titans to travel around the world, and introducing Apex Cybernetics, the company that will one day create Mechagodzilla.
When "Monarch" introduced time dilation, it also introduced a shortcut to fill in the gaps between each of the movies, as characters who go to the Axis Mundi region of Hollow Earth experience time differently. Specifically, "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" jumps forward in time two years, bringing us to 2017 (exactly two years before the events of "King of the Monsters") and to a key location in the MonsterVerse mythos: Skull Island.
Indeed, season 1 ends with the main characters in a former Monarch facility, now under the control of Apex Cybernetics, on Skull Island. But before they do much sightseeing, they have to take refuge because of the island's most famous resident — King Kong. This reveal opens up a world of possibilities for "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," and may indicate the main kaiju star of season 2.
Let them fight
The Kong cameo is not only massively exciting, but may indicate a change in focus for "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" in its second season. After all, the first season — which saw Godzilla show up a couple of times — teased events from the next two films in the "Godzilla" series, "King of the Monsters" and "Godzilla vs. Kong."
Skull Island, a rather important location for the Monster-verse, was never really mentioned or explored, but "Godzilla vs. Kong" introduced an ancient civilization of massive apes inside the Hollow Earth. Given that the "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" trailer shows what looks like a Kingdom of the Planet of the Giant Apes situation, it is entirely possible we'll see some more glimpses of that in "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" season 2.
At the very least, we can probably expect more of Apex Cybernetics and the research that eventually results in the creation of Mechagodzilla. It's hard to imagine that Apex would ignore the presence of a Titan right outside their door. We also know that Skull Island is eventually destroyed by King Ghidorah when he briefly becomes the titular "King of the Monsters." Given the nature of this show as a mid-quel, filling in the gaps that the movies can't due to time constraints, it looks like we're in for a bigger and more lore-heavy second season of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters."