As many of you already know by now by the title and I am sure all of you are feeling this, as well, but that new trailer has me HYPED! We are going to have a really good Thanksgiving this November. This morning, there was teaser for a new "Godzilla vs Megalon" short film that was made by Gemstone. This is the same studio that did the "Godzilla vs Gigan Rex" short film for last year's Godzilla-Fest celebrating Godzilla's 68th anniversary. This year marks the 69th anniversary as well as the 50th anniversary of Godzilla vs Megalon. So we get to see Megalon in action again in a new CG short film. Then, November 17th is when the BIG event really gets going with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters coming to Apple TV+.
The new trailer dropped during the New York Comic Con panel where attendees got to see the first episode of the new show. Reactions, thus far, has been really positive. Even some claiming this is the best the Monsterverse has been in a really long time and feels like a true sequel to Godzilla (2014). I wouldn't go that far until I have seen the show myself, but it is good to hear the show (at least the first episode) has been well received. There are reports from everyone that has seen the first episode say the new trailer is very spoiler heavy on the first episode. I would be okay with that as long as the rest of the show doesn't get spoiled in future previews. With that said, let's start off with the breaking down of the new trailer.
The trailer begins showing the post-mortem of Godzilla's and MUTO's attack on San Fransisco and we hear Cate's voice saying, "Monarch was there in San Fransisco." The scene cuts to the event when Godzilla attacks the Golden Gate bridge. Cate jumps out of the back of the bus, looks up to see Godzilla over her, and aiding the children to flee the bus before Godzilla destroys the bridge followed up with Monarch agents filming the whole event taking place at the bridge. Through out this cut, we hear Cate saying, "When the whole city was coming down…these guys were taking pictures. Like they have been waiting for it."
What I find most interesting to me, is how agents of Monarch were there front and center documenting Godzilla's attack on the bridge. They weren't on the side lines watching from afar like Dr. Serizawa and Dr. Graham. They were recording everything from the time of Godzilla's arrival and not helping aid any of the civilians off the bridge. So it makes me wonder if these agents were even around documenting the events that took place in Hawaii where Godzilla and the Male MUTO fought at the airport. We assume that Monarch is everywhere trying to damage control the situation while documenting everything happening around them for their own knowledge. It would just be interesting to see how these agents are documenting these events and how close they need to record the events as they happen.
We are then followed up with Cate opening a locker as seen in the first trailer and we see Kentaro sitting next to May as May asks Cate if she thinks her father is working for them [Monarch] with Cate responding that this stuff was inside his safe. It then cuts to Kentaro asking, "Who are they," and "What is Monarch," while May hacks into some files showing most them showing up redacted.
Suddenly, we get our first look at Anders Holm as the younger version of Bill Randa and Mari Yamamoto as Keiko on either Skull Island or an island similar to it looking at a decaying battleship. We then see, based on what I can tell, is the Great Seto Bridge destroyed and a trail left behind by whatever monster made landfall. We see Cate in Tokyo, Japan looking at her phone before looking up as something from above is approaching and then cutting to the dragon like monster flying above the tree line. During this cut of the trailer, we hear someone (either Cate or Keiko) explain, "In this world we live in, monsters are an inescapable reality."
We see some soldiers passing through some wreckage and finding May, Cate, and Kentaro passed out or shaken up by whatever events transpired here. We see Cate opening the satchel, then a map that looks like a flight pattern of sorts. We then see Joe Tippit as Tim talking to who I assume is Cate at an airport warning her that those Monarch files belongs to them and they're more important than she could imagine.
First off, that scene where Bill and Keiko see the battleship, I think this ship could very well be the USS Lawton that was supposed to have sunk during World War 2. While it was previously speculated that Godzilla was the culprit, I argued that Godzilla wasn't the culprit and Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts actually stated that he never intended for Godzilla to be the culprit. Rather, he stated that the Lawton was destroyed by an unseen monster. And we have seen in the first trailer what bursted out of this ship and it wasn't Godzilla. So it would be interesting to see if this show dives deeper into what happened to the Lawton.
When Joe Tippit was revealed to play as Tim, the description for this character said Tim is a researcher that works for Monarch that wants to participate in a secret-agent style adventure, but his eagerness might get him in trouble. So this is Tim going on one of those said adventures telling Cate or whoever he is talking to to hand back those files.
The trailer cuts back to the 50s where we see Bill Randa inside some sort of facility that was destroyed. While he is looking around, he finds a grotesque sight that he makes him comment about how this is going to give him nightmares. We see Kurt Russell as the much older Lee Shaw turning towards someone. He has a computer, which I assume he is the one responsible for hacking into Monarch's database as the screen shows up as "PRIMED." It then follows up with the gang inside an industrial area and then we find Lee in a garden telling Cate that if she wants to believe Monarch's lies before cutting away to Cate tearing down a map, which I assume is supposed to help her connect her father to Monarch.
We see either Bill Randa or Wyatt Russell as the much younger Lee Shaw inside the battleship and dodging a giant claw digging its way out. We find Shota Tsuji as SOTA standing in front of a device, which we can now identify as "PROJECT HOURGLASS" based on the viral marketing. What this device does, we don't know as of yet. We then see Cate at the refugee camp in San Fransisco where we see her calling out for her dad while we hear Shaw's voice continuing his sentence, "…about your father disappearing…"
Last year, there were leaked behind-the-scenes photos that showed Anna Sawai and Shota Tsuji on the set of the refugee camp arguing. Now, we know why and what kind of character Shota Tsuji is playing as. His character SOTA is supposed to be Cate's father and Cate is determined to find out what happened to her father and why he ran out on her after the incident at San Fransisco.
We hear Lee (Kurt) continue his previous sentence, "…or we can find out what really happened," as we see Kentaro holding a paper with punched holes up to the window and letting the sun's light pinpoint areas on a graph or map. We see who we now know are Lee (Wyatt), Bill, and Keiko in gas masks and Keiko holding a detonator to blow up what we see is the same industrial plant that Cate, May, and Kentaro had found themselves in a previous scene. The crew enter the facility where they find a large hole leading to a nest.
This is where things get even more interesting because I honestly believe these are MUTO eggs, which means we will see the MUTOs from the 2014 movie return in this show. They're similar in shape, color, and size as the MUTO eggs in the 2014 movie. The only discrepancy is that these eggs were not covered in webbing like the MUTO eggs were. The only reason why I think the MUTO eggs in Godzilla (2014) were wrapped with webbing was because of the nuke being their main source of food for the nest. This industrial plant could have enough radiation to feed the whole nest that any kind of webbing is unnecessary. When the babies do hatch out from the eggs, they won't look like the grown adults from the movie. They look more like caterpillars. This is their larval stage. Much like how caterpillars look drastically different from a moth and a butterfly, the same can be said for the MUTOs. Their larval stage are going to start off looking drastically different before they cocoon themselves and grow into fully grown adults.
Next thing we see is a bright light and we hear Lee explain that this world is not ours. This light we see, I believe is one of the tunnels from the Hollow Earth. More specifically, I think this could be the same Hollow Earth entrance in Antarctica that we see Kong enter in Godzilla vs Kong. Through out most of the Monsterverse movies, the Hollow Earth has been a growing focus until Godzilla vs Kong blew the lid open to this new world. So I think we are witnessing the discovery of the first Hollow Earth entrance in the Monsterverse.
We move on to seeing John Goodman as the older Bill Randa on Skull Island being chased a Mother Longlegs. This is followed up with Tim explaining to Cate and Kentaro about something being so much more vast than they could possibly imagine. He is spilling the beans to them most likely about our world being much bigger than how it seems from the outside most likely referring to the Hollow Earth.
We are back in Antarctica where we see the ground splitting apart and we get a glimpse of a new monster. This sequence reminds me of the movie Tremors as the giant earth worms hunt by vibrations. It seems to be a similar trait here, but this monster seems to have other attributes that I will get to in a moment.
I had to brighten this next shot, but the next scene we see are Lee (Wyatt), Bill, and Keiko trying to escape the nest from the MUTO larvae that which are chasing them and Lee reaching out his hand save Keiko. We see Kentaro locked up and we hear Cate exclaim, "These monsters and Monarch have taken everything from me." Then, we see an avalanche of sand out in the middle of a desert followed up with Kentaro saving May from an oncoming van or jeep.
The new monster appears again using its ice breath on an incoming plane where we see the pilot in the process of getting frozen. We hear Lee (Kurt Russell) shout "Run" and the trio running from a collapsing battleship. The next shot is sort of similar to a scene in Kong: Skull Island, where the monster creeps up on one of the main characters. Rather than a Skull Crawler, however, it's this new monster that we still don't know much about other than that it can burrow and has ice breath. We do see that does have legs as it does move like it is taking a step, but it may be until the episode comes out if this monster is bipedal or quadrupedal. Lee then speaks saying, "The world is on fire. If you want to save millions of lives we can use some help."
The trailer ends with the ground rumbling and cracking and we see Godzilla rising out of the water and then Godzilla rising from the ground as he gives his iconic roar. Overall, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is getting my very excited the more I watch this trailer. Even though Godzilla is in this show, I expect this to be more like Godzilla (2014) where other monsters will get the spot light and, based on testimonies from those that have seen the first episode, more story driven. This is fine because the show is called MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS and not "Godzilla: Legacy of Monsters." So I expect this show to be more about the secret organization and Godzilla is there to join the ride.
When it comes to the show and if it has any connection to the graphic novels, unfortunately according to an interview with director Matt Shakman by Collider, this show will not have any of those connections with the comics.
He comments on this saying, "Well, one of the creators is Matt Fraction, who's a brilliant comic book writer and is well-versed in that world. I'm a comic fan, too, but I would have to say that my knowledge of the Godzilla comics is not as deep as his or some others, and many of the people I'm sure who are on Twitter asking that question. I think we were more concerned about building and working within the mythology that's been established by Legendary, and so where it has diverged from comics, we have probably diverged as well, but we were very careful about mythology. There's a whole department at Legendary that handles this and that looks very carefully at that. I respect that a lot because I think when you're building the universe, you need consistency, you need authenticity, you need your world to feel lived in. I think that's a thing I love most about movies. When you're world-building, you need it to feel lived in, and they help you do that."
This is having me believe that some of the stuff from the graphic novels may no longer be canon to the Monsterverse lore. This is especially so as the director has been working closely with Legendary and their mythology department to work on how the show can fit into the cinematic universe and states that the show and comics have diverged, which means going in a different direction. In this case, some events in Awakening may play out differently than what we see in the show. For instance, at the comic's climax Godzilla and the Shinomura were about to have a fight on the Bikini Atoll as soon as the hydrogen bomb had exploded. In this show's case, the Shinomura may not actually appear at all and could just have Godzilla appear by himself more similarly to Godzilla (2014).
I am sure the show will be great, overall. No matter what is considered canon or not canon, I have this feeling this show will be amazing to watch. I am ready for November to come and we just have a little more than a month before the show begins to air on Apple TV+.
What were your thoughts on the second trailer for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters? Did this make you excited to watch it at all? Will you be watching each episode on a weekly basis or are you going to wait until all of the episodes are available to binge watch? Leave a comment in the comments section of your thoughts in the comments section. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Minds, MeWe, Gab, and TRUTH Social to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.
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