Series lead Anna Sawai, who plays Cate Randa in Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, has given a crucial update about what’s going to happen in Season 2, which received the green light from the streamer in April last year.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters takes place in the year 2015, one year after Godzilla reappeared. Sawai’s Cate Randa and her half-sibling Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe) look to connect the dots between Monarch and their missing father, Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira).
Monarch is a secret organization that keeps a close eye on MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) in the Monsterverse franchise.
Cate and Kentaro’s story goes head-to-head with Bill Randa’s (Anders Holm) and Keiko Miura’s (Mari Yamamoto) story in the show, set two generations earlier. Former U.S. Army colonel Lee Shaw (played by both Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell) becomes a close ally to the Randa family across both time periods.
After winning her SAG award for her outstanding performance in Shōgun, Sawai discussed Season 2 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters with one of the representatives of ScreenRant. While not going into too much depth, Sawai did tease that the upcoming season will be bigger and better than the previous one. Moreover, she disclosed that some big deaths are on the way in the second season.
This is what Sawai said:
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to tease anything at this point, but I can say we go on a huge journey. We’ll go in different directions, we lose some people, we find some people… I think that’s kind of it. But it’s very exciting.”
Season 1 already looked pretty big in terms of scale and ambition. There were many shake-ups that may lay the foundation for Season 2. Among the most notable twists was the supposed demise of Lee Shaw, who sacrifices himself to protect Cate and the others.
But what’s more important here is the fact that we actually never see Shaw’s body. Is he really dead? Or will the character reappear in Season 2? Considering the character’s significance and the prominence of the real-life father-son duo, Kurt and Wyatt Russell, Shaw could make a return in the second season.
Another twist came in the form of Keiko’s death; she dies but miraculously returns in the episode Axis Mundi in the debut season. These so-called deaths gave Season 1 some weight but also took away the seriousness it should have had, as neither of these key characters is confirmed dead.
Season 2 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters should avoid this approach, as it reflects the makers’ overly safe mindset in protecting the show and its viewership. To raise the stakes, some key characters should be written off in the second season. Based on how Season 1 went, we could witness the shocking demise of important figures like Tim (Joe Tippett), May (Kiersey Clemons), or Kentaro (Ren Watabe) in Season 2. Stay tuned for more updates.
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