Monarch: Legacy of Monsters creators explain why the Godzilla spin-off's new Titans had to be more than unrealistic nightmare fuel

Nov. 16, 2023

“It couldn’t just be [something] with six heads, 50 legs, and four mouths”

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Speaking to GamesRadar+ ahead of release, co-creators Chris Black and Matt Fraction opened up about the opportunity to bring new MUTOs to life – and why they couldn’t stray too far from the real world.

“There’s an expectation on the audience: they want to see monsters. If you’re working in the MonsterVerse, there has to be monsters,” Black says.

“We needed to see Godzilla and wanted to see Godzilla, but we were also given the freedom and encouraged to expand that pantheon. We had a great visual effects team who sunk their teeth into ‘What could this be?’ and building a whole cryptozoology of what this world contains.”

Fraction, though, cautions that it wasn’t a nightmare fuel blank cheque when it comes to creating the fearsome beasts that crop up during the Godzilla-adjacent series.

“All of the critters you’d see have some sort of precedent or antecedent in our world. It couldn’t just be [something] with six heads, 50 legs, and four mouths. What is this based on? Where are we starting [from] in the real world and growing? That would let us look around the world at what things live here and how they survive,” Fraction explains.

The first two episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, starring Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell, will premiere on Apple TV Plus on November 17. New episodes will follow weekly.

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I’m the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you’ll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.

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