Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ adds a new chapter in the MonsterVerse that features giants like Kong and Godzilla, among others. With four movies in its universe, the story of the MonsterVerse moves forward with an in-depth look into one of the key parts of the story: Monarch. The organization was first mentioned in the 2014 movie, ‘Godzilla,’ and has since been an important part of the Monster Universe, where every stone unturned reveals a new monster. The TV show gives the audience a context of its true origins and what it means for the cinematic universe in the future. SPOILERS AHEAD
Legacy of Monsters Sheds Light on the Origins of Monarch
Monarch in Legendary’s MonsterVerse is a secret organization whose aim is to discover and study monsters, through which they find ways to either kill them or weaponize them. Piecing together the information that has been revealed about the organization in the movies, it was founded sometime in the second half of the 1940s by the Truman government. The decision to create this organization was made after a monster came in contact with a US Navy ship named USS Lawton. Bill Randa was the sole survivor of that ship, which is why he made it his life’s mission to find all monsters and kill them.
Fortunately, monsters like Kong and Godzilla don’t exist in real life, so there is no organization with the sole purpose of hunting these monsters and protecting the world from them. (If they do exist, then they are doing a much better job of keeping themselves a secret, which isn’t something Monarch can say about itself!) ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ explores the origins and the true purpose of the organization through two timelines, one of which takes place around the time the organization was formed.
The show explores Bill Randa’s association with Monarch while adding more characters to the story. The sinking of USS Lawton is the catalyst for the creation of Monarch, making Bill sort of a founding father of the organization. This places the creation of Monarch sometime in 1946, soon after the navy vessel came in contact with a mysterious monster. Interestingly, in real life, an organization was formed that is known for its covert operations.
CIA was founded by President Truman in 1947, placing it roughly around the time Monarch was founded in the MonsterVerse. Perhaps the writers came up with Monarch in the shadow of the CIA, giving it the same aura as the real-life secret agency. In the MonsterVerse, Monarch is revealed to be an exceptionally well-funded organization that has all sorts of resources, including its own military, at its disposal. Even when its existence becomes common knowledge, they remain quite secretive about their past, their purpose, and the projects in their pipeline.
By far, the movies maintained the mysterious aura of Monarch, but its secrets are revealed, one by one, in the Apple TV+ show, where we go back to the beginning and find out how Bill Randa and his friends got involved in something that would have repercussions decades later on his own family.
