Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 Trailer Reveals Titan X Coming
“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” a TV series in the (mostly cinematic) blockbuster kaiju franchise known as the Monsterverse, is getting its second season towards the end of Feb. Now, it’s gotten its first teaser trailer – barely 30 seconds longer than the teaser that dropped back in Nov., but it’s a bit more illuminating. It’s a fundamental, thoroughly established truism that the blockbuster-going public will never lose its appetite for giant, destructive monsters, but you don’t need a trailer to tell you that these are what “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” has in store for you. So, what other promotional truisms does this series draw upon in its second advertisement?
“This Is Something Bigger”
Right from the start, the teaser trailer, which Apple TV and Legendary Entertainment dropped on YouTube on Jan. 13, seeks to hook you with voiceover proclamations: “The world has changed,” says former U.S. Army Colonel Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell, rugged and resolute). “Something’s happening,” adds Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), a humble schoolteacher whose father happened to be involved with the kaiju-hunting agency Monarch. (All of the characters mentioned in this reaction are returning from Season 1).
These two continue to share the narration as we learn which kaiju they’ll be up against this time. “This is not Kong” (though he can still fling large vehicles with as much flair as ever), “and it’s not Godzilla” (though this monster still looks terrifying when it prowls an urban quarter). So, what is it? The answer constitutes another page out of the kaiju-blockbuster handbook – one that all executives shepherding such projects must regularly recite in their sleep: “This is something bigger.”
Indeed, it’s no exaggeration to say that this is the single most clichéd line of dialogue imaginable for any piece of “Monarch” media. But let nobody call it a steakless sizzle: the trailer takes care to showcase this enormous monster, albeit briefly. It’s a marine creature that we first see in a quick side view; its skin, horny head, and fearsome eye look quite reptilian. When we get a full-body view of the creature in the trailer’s final shot, we see that the rest of it looks like a cephalopod, with thick tentacles trailing behind the arrow-shaped head. This second shot shows the monster swimming just above a whale, which is no more than a fifth of its size.
“Titan X has awakened,” the video’s description announces. And what, you ask, has roused this biggest of kaiju? “You opened the rift to another world,” says the Monarch scientist Keiko (Mari Yamamoto). “We made a mistake,” confesses Cate’s father, Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira). That’s nothing to feel ashamed about. This franchise needs just such blunders to function. “So, what’s next?” Colonel Shaw asks. “Consequences,” answers Monarch scientist Tim (Joe Tippett).
A Kaiju Trailer as Standard as They Come
Overall, the first teaser trailer for Season 2 of “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” is the kind of Monsterverse advertisement that AI would whip up if you so prompted it. You’ll see a fiery explosion, an otherworldly shockwave, a blast of energy, a clip of Titan X pursuing a motorboat on the ocean, a shot of people fleeing a kaiju rampage, and a shot of those spherical massacre-mollusks from the Nov. teaser rolling their vicious way through a village. There’s a cool visual showing what appears to be a cave-painting of a kaiju, but even this is kind of boilerplate for the Monsterverse (“Kong: Skull Island” made it clear that certain Indigenous peoples have been worshiping Kong for millennia).
Basically, anything that one could say about that first teaser applies here. If you love Season 1 of “Monarch” and/or kaiju media in general, this ought to give you plenty more of that. In the absence of such proclivities, there’s a strong chance that it won’t contain nearly enough fresh or exceptional elements, if any, to be worth your while.
“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” will air on Apple TV on Feb. 27.
