‘Monarch Legacy of Monsters’ Best Character Isn’t Who You Think

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is packed with powerful players, and that statement is in no way limited to the Titans. We’re blessed with no shortage of screen time for the father-son acting duo, Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell, playing Lee Shaw at different stages of his life. Mari Yamamoto captivates as Keiko, the enthusiastic scientist laying the groundwork for Monarch, the secret organization that’s been the centerpiece of the MonsterVerse movies from the beginning. Then, of course, there are Keiko’s grandchildren, Cate and Kentaro (Anna Sawai and Ren Watabe, respectively), who serve as the core of the series’ emotional take on what is essentially a monster-focused family business. The best character in the show, however, is one entirely unrelated to the legacy: May (Kiersey Clemons).

Kiersey Clemons’ performance in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is top-of-the-line among an already stacked cast, a feat in which she’s no stranger, even bringing a level of human subtly to a project like The Flash. From her breakout in 2015’s Dope, Clemons hit the ground running, racking up a slew of impressive performances over the years in projects such as Transparent, Somenbody I Used to Know, Hearts Beat Loud, and Swarm. If her leading turn in Monarch is any indication, then this won’t be the last time Clemons takes a character in a major Hollywood vehicle and elevates it to the best it can be. It’s not Clemons’ performance alone that makes May the best of Monarch, though. The MonsterVerse franchise struck gold with all this character has to offer.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Set after the battle between Godzilla and the Titans, revealing that monsters are real, follows one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to Monarch.

Release Date

November 17, 2023

Cast

Christopher Heyerdahl , Mari Yamamoto , Kurt Russell , Qyoko Kudo

Seasons

1

Kiersey Clemons’ May Is ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Most Relatable Character

By a wide margin, May (or you could call her by her real name, Corah, as we’ve come to learn) holds the honor of being Monarch: Legacy of Monsters‘ most relatable character. It’s in the name… the show is all about legacy. We spend the bulk of the journey following the torch-passing of secrets and continuing of missions from one generation to the next in the fight against Titan-level threats. May enters the adventure as fresh and disconnected as we are as viewers. Her cohorts, Cate and Kentaro, are half-siblings, the children of Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira) and grandchildren of Keiko. Bill Randa (Anders Holm) is a younger iteration of John Goodman‘s character in Kong: Skull Island, and he becomes step-father to Hiroshi when he marries Keiko. Moreover, Lee Shaw (the Russells) may not be a part of the family, but his preserved age caused by the strange passing of time in the Hollow Earth makes him as heavily a part of Monarch’s legacy as one can be. Even Duvall (Elisa Lasowski) is the sister of a familiar Monarch figure in Sandra Brody (Juliette Binoche), whom you may remember as the Monarch scientist and ill-fated wife of Bryan Cranston‘s Joseph Brody in 2014’s Godzilla.

The extent of May’s value doesn’t stop with her being an outsider, though. To put it simply, she’s just interesting. May’s introduced to us as a friend with obvious (and tumultuous, to say the least) romantic ties to Kentaro. The flashback sequences of the two make for the most endearing meet-cute of the series, an element that’s surprisingly plentiful for a show centered around giant monsters. She’s a hacker; Cate and Kentaro come to her for help deciphering their father’s left-behind digital file. Thus begins the swift unraveling of Monarch’s secrets.

Once the thread is pulled, May is just as tightly locked into the chaos as the Randa family. At first, the series teeters on the edge of presenting May as a bit of a cliché, offering the archetypal “young hacker” to further the plot along and hand-wave at the specifics of how a few novices manage to outsmart a world-class organization that specializes in secrecy. Rest assured, this was soon cleaned up. When the seventh episode, “Will the Real May Please Stand Up?” rolls around, May’s advanced skills are justified beyond the point of satisfaction. The backstory revealed to us is both easy to buy into and skillfully embodied by Clemons, all without distracting from the central plot. Thanks to May’s story, the series now directly connects to the most recent MonsterVerse movie.

May’s Story Connects ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Directly to ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’

For a bit, it was unclear if Monarch: Legacy of Monsters would integrate itself into the recent slate of Legendary’s MonsterVerse movies. The majority of the show takes place either long before any of the films or just after G-Day, the catastrophic climax of 2014’s Godzilla. The key players of Godzilla: King of the Monsters play no part in the show, implying that this particular group of Monarch operatives represent a faction separate from the top-dogs of the organization. However, with the fleshing-out of May’s story, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has connected itself directly to the latest MonsterVerse movie, Godzilla vs. Kong.

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May’s been on the run. She changed her name and fled to Japan, where she met Kentaro, and now we know why. Before the events of the series, her technical prowess caught the eye of a company called Applied Experimental Technologies. After being recruited, May eventually hacks her way into AET’s systems, uncovering dark secrets that include brutal methods of animal experimentation. She sabotages AET’s files that contain their research and begins her incognito journey. After the company finally catches up with her and settles their grievances with May and Monarch, we get the big reveal. Under the apparent order of Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir in Godzilla vs. Kong), Applied Experimental Technologies opts for a rebranding, turning itself into Apex Cybernetics, the villainous corporation that will eventually create Mechagodzilla.

‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Human Characters Are Interesting

The best part of May is her ability to contribute wit, talent, and a non-melodramatic level of emotional investment to a (forgivably) bloated story. She serves as a perfect example of when a piece of kaiju media balances its human characters just right. She brings unique value without overshadowing what we’re all here for: the monsters. Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Godzilla vs. Kong all share similar struggles when it comes to introducing and properly using its human characters. Ford Brody (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Elle Brody (Elizabeth Olsen), Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown), even Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) all serve their purpose well enough, but they rarely step beyond the realm of predictable archetypes.

It’s no fault of the actors portraying them; you couldn’t ask for more rewatchable performances of flatly written characters. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters‘ humans are simply more human. It may be the freedom that an episodic format lends, allowing us time with our characters that doesn’t leave us restlessly waiting for the next monster sequence. If that is the case, though, one can only hope a character like May can migrate over to the MonsterVerse’s movies and work her magic there.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is streaming on Apple TV+.

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