From the first season, Apple TV's Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has been more than another entry in the ever-expanding Monsterverse. For Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt, now that the second season is out, it has evolved into a story about time, legacy, and what it means to share a single character across generations, something few actors, let alone families, ever experience.
Set within the cinematic universe built around Godzilla and King Kong, the series follows the secret organization Monarch as it tracks the existence and global impact of massive prehistoric Titans. At the center of that mythology is Lee Shaw, a former Army officer whose life spans the origins of Monarch in the 1950s and its modern-day consequences.
Kurt Russell plays Shaw in the present timeline, while Wyatt Russell portrays the character's younger self. The creative decision ties the show's past and present together, but it also mirrors something deeply personal for the Russells themselves, as they explained in a joint interview with The Latin Times.
"For us, it's different," said Wyatt. "I did have that experience with him. And he had it with his dad in certain ways. But I had it with him a little more because I was doing big-budget movies that resembled this."
Kurt Russell's career has long been shaped by large-scale productions, from Escape from New York and Tombstone to Miracle and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. That history gives his work on Monarch a sense of continuity, placing the series within a lineage of spectacle-driven storytelling that now intersects directly with his family life.
It also brings him back to his childhood. He vividly remembered his first encounter with Godzilla as a child. "Something about that monster really stuck with me," he said, adding that the idea of working with the character decades later made joining Monarch particularly meaningful.
Wyatt Russell's relationship with the Monsterverse icons was more ambient growing up. "You just sort of knew who King Kong and Godzilla were," he said. "You go to the toy store. They were always there." He did not associate them with a specific childhood movie experience, but with a cultural presence that felt constant and unavoidable.
Now, both monsters and the titans they fight are part of the Russell family lore.
The senior Russell spoke about watching his children visit set and noticing the quiet continuity behind the scenes. He referenced longtime collaborator Dennis Liddiard, who has worked with him on more than 28 projects and was responsible for the practical de-aging makeup in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
"Dennis was holding me when I was two years old," Wyatt added. "Now I have pictures of Dennis holding my kids when they're two and three."
For him, that experience outweighs revisiting the finished episodes. "It's more the experience," he said. "It's a reminder of those times that you spend with your kids."
Wyatt Russell, meanwhile, reflected on how Monarch might be perceived years from now. "I daydream once in a while about long after I'm gone, my grandchildren seeing something that I did and going, 'Wait a minute, what?'" he said.
Doing the series alongside his father, he added, would make that realization even more striking for future generations.
Season two of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters builds directly on those ideas of legacy and consequence. Apple TV+ has confirmed that the new episodes expand Monarch's reach, introduce new threats tied to Titan activity, and further explore Lee Shaw's past as it collides with the present. The scale is larger, but the storytelling remains grounded in human relationships.
The ensemble cast returning for season two includes Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Mari Yamamoto, Anders Holm, and Joe Tippett, all of whom help anchor the series' global mythology in personal stakes and emotional continuity.
When I noted that season two feels bigger than the first, Kurt Russell agreed without hesitation. "It is," he said, before adding that watching the episodes with his family gave the season a different kind of weight.
In a franchise defined by massive destruction and cinematic spectacle, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters finds its most lasting impact in something quieter. For Kurt and Wyatt Russell, sharing Lee Shaw across decades has become an essential chapter in their family history, one that reflects the show's central truth: the past never truly disappears, it simply waits to be rediscovered
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