The first two episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters are now streaming and we were recently able to sit down with executive producer Tory Tunnell (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword; Spinning Out; Underground) to get more insight into the making of the series.
We first get into why they chose to set the series during these specific time periods, namely in the 1950s before the events of Kong: Skull Island and 2014/2015 after the events of Godzilla, rather than pushing its setting to modern day where they could've factored in the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong.
Plus, she tells us all about what went behind casting Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell as the older and younger versions of Lee Shaw, as well as whether or not the series could eventually inform what's to come in next year's Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
Tunnell and her husband Joby Harold (Obi-Wan Kenobi; John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum; Edge of Tomorrow) both serve as executive producers on the series through their Safehouse Pictures banner, which they founded in 2005. In addition to Monarch, they're currently in post-production on the sci-fi actioner Atlas, starring Jennifer Lopez, Simu Liu, and Sterling K. Brown, which Brad Peyton directed for Netflix. The film is about a bleak-sounding future, where an AI soldier has determined that the only way to end war is to end humanity.
In our review of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, we said the series "is wildly entertaining with a compelling human core that keeps you coming back for more. Godzilla and the Titans remain the stars of the MonsterVerse, but, thanks to the outstanding father-son duo of Kurt and Wyatt Russell as well as a star-making turn from Anna Sawai, the universe is finally able to expand in a satisfying way that will hopefully set the stage for a variety of new adventures, including the sure-to-be epic Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in March."
Watch and/or read on for our full interview with executive producer Tory Tunnell below, and please remember to SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: When developing the series, when did you realize it was important to set the present-day story in this particular time frame after 2014's Godzilla rather than after Godzilla: King of the Monsters or Godzilla vs Kong?
TORY: I think what was really exciting is - Safehouse, my company with my husband, Joby Harold, who is also a writer and producer - we came on when Matt Fraction had sort of targeted Monarch as an entry point into tackling a TV show, which we thought was so brilliant, because you get to see Monarch in the films, you first see it as sort of a shadowy organization, and then, it becomes really prominent in the later movies, but we didn't really get to spend time learning how that happened. Who are the people behind it? And, what does that look like? I think that it also gives us an opportunity to do is to facilitate a show where you are sort of building the organization from the ground up, so if you've never seen anything in the MonsterVerse, you're coming on the ground floor of learning how it all worked, how it came to be and you're also sort of put in the middle of this really juicy family drama that starts to unravel in those two timelines.
ROHAN: I think the MonsterVerse requires a certain kind of crazy and it really feels like Kurt Russell is that exact right kind of crazy to headline this series. What went behind casting him as Lee Shaw? And, then also deciding to cast Wyatt as the younger Lee?
TORY: Yeah, well, Kurt Russell, our co-creator Chris Black always had seen Kurt Russell as Lee Shaw and boy, was he right. He really sort of takes that character and he runs with it. And, when we talked about the younger Lee Shaw storyline, our amazing casting director Ronna Kress suggested that we go to Wyatt, which, of course, is so obvious and so brilliant and was so perfect, because oftentimes you're looking at and wrestling with the idea of do I de-age the actor to do a storyline that's 30-40 years in the past? Am I recasting?
But, with Wyatt, you have someone who really embodies so much of who Kurt is, but he's also his own person, and, you know, when you look at yourself a couple of decades before, you are a slightly different person. So, the two of them had so much fun behind the scenes, calibrating that character, and making sure that they're, you know, Kurt had enough of Wyatt and Wyatt had enough of Kurt, and I think that they really give a seamless character to our story.
ROHAN: Are you allowed to say anything about how this series could possibly inform next year’s Godzilla x Kong; New Empire?
TORY: I think you have to watch it to see, but I think that one of the things that's been really fun is because we have the home of Legendary, who is doing all of these things, we have an amazing mythology manager who we were able to sort of coordinate with and make sure that no one's stepping on each other's toes. That we're all in concert. That we are all bolstering the other and that it's all in concert and well thought out.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is now streaming on Apple TV+!