After discovering success reimagining the origins of King Kong and Godzilla for the massive display screen, Legendary and Warner Bros. determined to increase their MonsterVerse franchise to tv, and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters was born. Debuting on Apple TV in late 2023, the sequence break up its story between two half-siblings seeking their lacking father within the current day and a gaggle of researchers through the fledgling days of Monarch a long time earlier, connecting the 2 timelines in stunning trend.
The present was successful with followers and critics, and a second season was introduced simply months after the primary ended. Season 2 premieres on Apple TV on February 27, however the evaluations have began to return in, with critics calling it a assured enlargement of the franchise that efficiently balances its large-scale thrills with considerate character work.
Here’s what critics are saying about Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: Season 2:
Plots are loads simpler to comply with this season. The Titans are additionally way more current in Season 2, with a mixture of Kong, Godzilla and the unique Titan X monster given beneficiant display screen time with feature-film-quality visible results work. Indeed, this season seems good… Pace-wise, the primary half of the season strikes like a rocket with loads of Titan set items of word in addition to main plot twists and turns within the current and previous. The again half slows down a bit till it introduces a intelligent system… that delivers poignant emotional turns that assist shut the season with sudden resonance.
— Tara Bennett, IGN Movies
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 is equally as action-packed as it’s emotional… The scale feels huge, as if it belongs on the massive display screen moderately than the small display screen. But on prime of that, it stays deeply, nearly painfully, emotionally pushed… The writing has matured, and the stakes really feel private in a manner that big-budget creature options hardly ever handle to attain.
— Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
Monarch Season 2 expands the Monsterverse world, anchored by glorious performances from Anna Sawai and Mari Yamamoto and a few glorious monster moments… While it’s a beautiful outing with glorious Titan fight, an important sense of scale, and a few nice new additions to the world, it’s price noting that Monarch may evolve the menace degree… Monarch fires on all cylinders in Season 2 for a top-shelf season of tv.
— Jeff Ewing, The Direct
Season 2 is unquestionably a way more character-driven journey, but it surely additionally has a have to propel its kaiju-centric storyline ahead. There’s a number of exposition dumps and narrative drops right here and there to maintain the story going… The kaiju fights are additionally explosive and brutal, however that’s a given for any Monsterverse venture… Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 continues to confidently propel its emotional, human-centric story ahead amidst Godzilla, Kong, and the titanic craziness of the Monsterverse.
— Chris Gallardo, Tell-Tale TV
An exhilarating, far more assured season that expands the MonsterVerse in thrilling methods, all whereas deepening our emotional funding in each its human and inhuman characters alike… Any and all issues over the MonsterVerse’s capability to generate human characters as compelling as its monstrous beasts dissolve utterly in a brand new season that’s discovered its rhythm. Both are nicely represented in an awe-inspiring season that delivers on thrilling journey and coronary heart wrenching drama… That Monarch covers a lot floor, continually propelling the story ahead amidst breathless motion sequences and death-defying encounters, impresses all of the extra contemplating how intricately it’s woven into the MonsterVerse’s more and more difficult timeline.
— Megan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is larger and higher in season 2, with Kong getting a great quantity of display screen time and a deeper understanding of the overarching Monsterverse mythology… The second season nonetheless options common flashbacks that includes Wyatt Russell and Anders Holm however the current day storyline is far more participating… The particular results are considerably higher and I loved the concentrate on Kong moderately than Godzilla this season. It additionally helps that the story is way simpler to comply with with the characters unified in every time interval.
— Alex Maidy, JoBlo’s Movie Network
It’s removed from good — in truth, it’s way more uneven than Season 1 — however stays simply as thrilling. It’s additionally no Godzilla Minus One, however Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 greater than delivers, particularly in spectacle… Overall, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 is one other stable constructing block within the MonsterVerse. It knocks it out of the park the place it issues most, providing exhilarating monster mayhem and a brand new Titan that’s greater than definitely worth the value of admission — or the Apple TV subscription. Sure, the Randa siblings are a substantial nuisance, however the energy of Keiko, in addition to each variations of Shaw, Hiroshi, and Bill, make up for the cracks on this ensemble.
— David Caballero, Collider
The season’s plot alternates between being an exciting extension of the MonsterVerse sequence that raises the stakes and a Jurassic World entry (if it had been good) whereas by no means shedding sight of the participating humanistic components. The ensemble continues to ship high quality performances. Kurt and Wyatt Russell, significantly, are standouts, [and] Mari Yamamoto’s portrayal of Keiko is commendable, as she delivers a maternal efficiency that resonates together with her older co-star Takehiro Hira’s Hiroshi… The younger grownup forged doesn’t fare as nicely.
— Rendy Jones, RogerEbert.com
Season 2 continues following a fractured timeline that turns into more and more tough to trace because the season progresses… The sequence is steeped in an excessive amount of melodrama, with not one however two romantic triangles, however it’s at its finest when it’s simply heroes and monsters who’re dominating the display screen, in magnificent trend, making the sequence a sheer blast of pleasure for monster children like me.
— Peter Martin, ScreenAnarchy
There is loads happening in Monarch season two, usually to its detriment. At instances, it bogs down the enjoyable with an excessive amount of technical jargon, bureaucratic pink tape, and complicated speak of rifts. The sequence additionally doesn’t know what to do with its characters past the collective mission to not trigger mass devastation by toying with Titans. Only when it lastly hones in on its new monster does the season handle to inform a surprisingly emotional story that leans into the human-Titan connection on the core of the movies. But more and more, Monarch additionally pulls its punches… Titan X’s emotional arc is by far the simplest factor about season two.
— Hunter Ingram, AV Club
While that stability between human-focused melodrama amid big-budget spectacle (principally) labored the final time round, this sophomore season of Monarch can’t fairly recreate the identical recipe for achievement… The Titan X thriller builds an honest quantity of momentum within the early season, however this quickly peters out as our ensemble spins their wheels on uninspired and uninteresting subplots… Still, the assorted flashbacks to Keiko, her lover Bill (Anders Holm), and third-wheel Lee (Wyatt Russell) in a long time previous proceed to be a spotlight, as is the endearing stunt casting of Wyatt and Kurt Russell as youthful and older variations of the identical character.
— Jeremy Mathai, SlashFilm
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 is best than the primary one. If that’s all you need to find out about it, you should have a great time… If you loved the primary outing, you’re certain to get pleasure from the second. On the opposite hand, if you happen to had been delay by the uninteresting pacing and flat characters three years in the past, likelihood is that is solely step one in profitable you again… What does work is similar factor that labored final time. Everything to do with Keiko, Shaw, and Bill Randa (Anders Holm) is super… There are at the least a handful of colossal set items involving the massive identify monsters, but all of them fail to impress.
— Joonatan Itkonen, Region Free
Expectations {that a} extra instant monster menace would possibly deliver focus to the present’s ponderous human drama must be saved in test, as a result of season two is much more mired in soapy household squabbles and love triangles than the primary… For on a regular basis Monarch: Legacy of Monsters spends attempting to develop its characters and infrequently clarify its science, the story is not any extra fulfilling, not to mention plausible… You’ll spend even longer ready to care about these characters than you’ll for Godzilla to lastly present up.
— Steven Nguyen Scaife, Slant Magazine
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: Season 2 premieres on Apple TV on February 27, 2026.
