Monarch: Legacy of Monsters director Matt Shakman thinks the combination of Kurt Russell and Godzilla is a dream pairing.
Russell and Godzilla Feels ‘100% Right’
The Apple TV+ series begins next month and stars screen legend Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt playing the role of Lee Shaw across two time periods as the history of the Monsterverse’s Monarch organization is charted from its earliest days to the Godzilla attacks of Gareth Edwards’ 2014 movie and beyond.
Matt Shakman, who directs some of the episodes for the series, spoke to Collider recently about all manner of subjects, including the casting of the Russells as the same character years apart. He remarked on how having Kurt Russell and Godzilla in the same show was a dream come true.
”It’s such a unique fit because Kurt Russell stars in all the movies I love, and since I was a kid, I’ve been watching him on screen,” says Shakman, ”The idea of Kurt Russell plus Godzilla just feels absolutely, 100% right. He occupies the same awesome space. Then the fact that Wyatt could work so beautifully as the young version of that same character, it just was serendipity, you know, things that we couldn’t have planned that the fates made possible for us.”
Based on Legendary’s Monsterverse (Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of Monsters), the series stars Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Mari Yamamoto, Anders Holm, Joe Tippett, and Elisa Lasowski.
Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco, and the shocking revelation that monsters are real, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters tracks two siblings following in their father’s footsteps to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch.
Clues lead them into the world of monsters and ultimately down the rabbit hole to Army officer Lee Shaw (played by Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell), taking place in the 1950s and half a century later where Monarch is threatened by what Shaw knows. The dramatic saga – spanning three generations – reveals buried secrets and the ways that epic, earth-shattering events can reverberate through our lives.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters will be a ten-episode series that will premiere globally on Friday, November 17.
