The Big Picture

The finale of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is said to be emotional and filled with twists and turns. Kurt and Wyatt Russell tease the possibility of a Season 2, but nothing is official yet. The actors discuss their nervousness and concerns when taking on challenging roles, such as Snake Plissken and the U.S. Agent.

Having passed the halfway mark in Season 1 of Apple TV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the finale is fast-approaching, and with Godzilla rearing his massive head, there’s no guarantee for anyone. Recently, Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down with stars Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell for an exclusive conversation about a potential Season 2 and the roles that prepared them for the 10-episode series.

Monarch takes place after the destruction of San Francisco in Legendary’s Monsterverse timeline, but the non-linear narrative spans decades, reaching back to the early days of the secretive organization in the 1950s. Here we’re introduced to Army Lieutenant Lee Shaw, portrayed by Wyatt Russell, who has information on Monarch after being sent as an escort for Dr. Keiko Muira (Mari Yamamoto) to investigate radioactivity. Kurt Russell plays the older version of Shaw, who becomes pivotal in a young trio searching for answers. Monarch also stars Anna Sawai, Ren Watabe, Kiersey Clemons, and more.

During this interview with Collider, Kurt and Wyatt tease their fates at the end of Season 1 and discussions about a potential Season 2. They share their hopes for fans as the season comes to its emotional end, how their characters were adapted to their casting throughout production, and how they feel about the recent surge of Godzilla. The pair also talk about previous roles that made them nervous, how those roles differed from Shaw in Monarch, how Kurt collaborated on the creation of Snake Plissken in John Carpenter’s Escape from New York, and Plissken would do if he encountered Godzilla. Check it all out in the full transcript below!

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 Main Genre Sci-Fi Seasons 1

COLLIDER: I have not seen the finale yet, which kills me, but what do you think fans are gonna think about the last two episodes because I’ve heard they’re incredible?

WYATT RUSSELL: Crying, laughter, screaming with excitement.

KURT RUSSELL: [Laughs] It’s gonna make you cry. The twists and turns on this one are very strong.

WYATT: And you have to sleep immediately after you watch it because you need rest.

KURT: I just think it’s my favorite last shot of a streamer I’ve seen, maybe ever.

WYATT: It’s pretty awesome.

KURT: It’s pretty great.

WYATT: I will admit, I haven’t seen it either. I don’t like watching myself. This one I will watch because it involves a lot, but I remember shooting [Episode] 9 and being like, “This is a good one.” You can feel it, and you hope it comes out. Now that everybody’s seeing it or seen it, and everybody that I know that’s watched has given it the vote of confidence I thought that it would get, when those two things line up, I think you’re confident that it will be.

KURT: It’s fun when you’re now getting to the point where you’re wrapping things up with a bow. All the things you worked on in the beginning, you’re now going to find out how it feels to pay it off. And if you feel it when you’re doing it, it’s probably working pretty good. You never know.

WYATT: And you’re hoping it’s cut together well, and that’s when you’re like, “Oh, cool.”

KURT: Yeah, this should go together like butter.

Is Kurt Russell Returning for ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 2?
Image via AppleTV+

I looked at Apple TV this morning and I see Monarch is number one. I see it’s doing very, very well. I have to ask you — and I don’t know who survives, I don’t know anything, but I’m assuming you guys survive…

KURT: Don’t. [Laughs]

Has Apple asked you to save any dates in 2024?

WYATT: No, they haven’t asked us to save anything.

KURT: I mean, there’s always scuttlebutt around the fantail in our business. When you get down to it, you get down to it. And yeah, there’s a lot of talk about it.

WYATT: Talk. There’s lots of talk, but nothing’s official until someone calls you and says, “It’s official.” I’ve been a part of things where it’s like, “We’re gonna do it!” And then it never happens.

An individual question for you, if someone has never seen anything your dad has done, what would you like them watching? Do you have a favorite performance of his?

WYATT: Used Cars. It’s definitely my favorite movie for a lot of reasons, but it’s my favorite humor. It’s Bob Zemeckis, his second movie. Everything in that movie is just, I love it. Jim Gavin, who wrote Lodge 49, Jim Gavin’s father’s favorite movie – Used Cars. So there’s some sort of genetic throughline that I enjoy.

KURT: That’s my favorite of what he’s done. Probably Lodge 49, or Black Mirror was great. That show is really good. When you’ve got to carry the ball… By the way, I never have asked you, I know you liked that experience because you worked with him so well, with Dan [Trachtenberg], but when you’re kind of out there just on your own…

WYATT: Yeah, I was out there on my own. It was one of the first times that I had to really, like, put up or shut up. There’s a shot where it was all one and he wanted to do it all in one shot, and I was like, “Okay, you’re gonna find out whether you’re gonna do this as a job in the future, or not, right now.” And it worked and it was great and it came out really good. But even doing something like this, having done things like that, they’re good prerequisites because these are kind of hard to do. You can’t hide in these things. You can, but then they become very boring. So, you want to be able to put yourself out there in ways.

KURT: Under the Banner of Heaven. He talked about Under the Banner of Heaven five years…?

WYATT: 10 years ago.

KURT: 10 years before! I never read it, but there was this Under the Banner of Heaven thing that he wanted. He said, “I’m gonna do that.”

WYATT: Well, all these things are, they’re character.

Sure.

WYATT: They’re full-on character, and this was not that. This was a much more straightforward guy, and he didn’t have some of those character things you can lean on. So, that was a little bit of a new experience for me where I was like, “No, you’re just gonna kind of play the straight lead guy,” which was scary because, again, you can’t hide in that. You can’t hide in a character.

If Snake Plissken was in the world of Monarch, what do you think he would do about Godzilla and the Titans? What would his reaction be to encountering all of this?

KURT: Well, Snake’s a psychopath. He just doesn’t care. He would move away. If any of them get in his path, he’s gonna try to escape from them, and if he can’t do that then he’ll go to work. [Laughs]

WYATT: Guns don’t do much against Godzilla.

KURT: And that’s the problem. That’s a different sci-fi. But I will tell you this, Santa Claus is a bad match for Godzilla. I can tell you who’s gonna win that battle. That’s Santa’s territory. See ya! Wouldn’t wanna be ya. [Laughs]

One of the things that’s really cool about this role is that the arc from where you start, the whole arc is just great. How much did you know about the arc going in, and how much did they tell you?

KURT: There was no arc, so we needed to go to work and work on the character for the young Lee and old Lee to tie the two time periods together. That arc was discovered through the work that we did collaborating with Matt Fraction and Chris Black, and it’s like any other movie you do, right?

WYATT: They didn’t know the end of the show. They may have had three shows written when we came on. So, it was a good idea, but it wasn’t written for Wyatt and Kurt. [Casting director] Ronna Cress had the idea, “What if we cast Wyatt and Kurt in this role?” I was like, “Cool. That’d be a great idea. Now, let’s fill out the role for Wyatt and Kurt.” But yeah, we didn’t know where we were going and we needed to figure that out.

KURT: We needed to create it, and what you see was the work that was done by the showrunners and us together. I mean, look, you come in once you’re cast, whatever role you’re casting with whatever actor you’re putting in it, if they’re known then they have some baggage they’re coming in with. Now, some of it might be good baggage, some of it might be the wrong baggage, so you throw the wrong away and you go with right, but you’ve got to find a common ground and then you’ve got to play it. Then he’s gonna have to get the train rolling down the tracks and whatever tracks he starts rolling it down is what we talk about, but here it goes. Wherever it hits the road, suddenly things kind of have their way of having their own life, especially over a four-month period or five-month period of doing 10 shows. We try to keep it in check and keep the ball rolling.

Related Wyatt and Kurt Russell on the Challenge of Their Unique ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Role The father and son duo play the same character 50 years apart.

I’m a fan of Godzilla and this, to me, is just a phenomenal time to be a fan of Godzilla. You have Godzilla Minus One, which is an incredible movie.

KURT: It looks good, man.

It doesn’t make sense how good the movie is. It’s one of the best I’ve seen this year, it’s that good. Then you have Monarch, which is a fantastic show, and then you have the upcoming Godzilla x Kong.

KURT: Well, you haven’t seen [Episodes] 9 and 10 yet. [Laughs]

Listen, I’m already a fan of the show before 9 and 10.

KURT: Let’s face it, Godzilla and the Monsterverse are about to take a big swing, a change. You’re gonna now be in a world where human beings are relatable and they’re living with it. They’re not just running from it. You gotta find out about these people because they’re trying to find out about the monster. So the first time you’re gonna start finding out about Godzilla, you’re gonna start finding out about, I don’t know, Mothra or King Kong, Rodan, whoever they are, the Bramble Boar. You’re gonna start finding out about that, and that’s mysterious.

Here’s How Kurt Russell Created Snake Plissken

Like I said, it’s just a great time. I love talking to actors about the craft, but I’m gonna ask you a specific question. You both have done really cool projects. What was the most nervous you’ve been prior to stepping on set day one to inhabit the role that you were about to do in terms of being in your head a little bit about it?

KURT: I wouldn’t say nervous, I would say concerned. For me, in terms of just stepping out there and saying, “Well, here goes,” you never forget it. John Carpenter and I kind of had a shorthand way of speaking to each other. “We’re gonna do this movie now, and the character is Snake Plissken.” And he lets me go make my wardrobe up, make it up with the wardrobe gal, and we created something. I began to have things in my mind. For instance, craft work for me was in my head, figuring out the character because it was a futuristic thing, but I couldn’t get the sound of him in my ear. And then, Lee Van Cleef, he’s Hauk, the first day we’re gonna do this scene that actually was not in the movie, it was action, and out came Snake’s voice. And I was just like, “I’m going with this. I’m going with it.” We did two takes, and Carpenter came in and he leaned and he said, “This fucking character is gonna be great!” [Laughs] And I was like, “Whoo!” Because he could have come over and said, “What are you doing? What’s that all about?” Have you had one where you were like, “Here we go?”

WYATT: Yeah, for The Falcon and Winter Soldier. You get dressed in this tight suit and you’re playing a character that had already been played. Chris Evans was God to these people, and he was great at it. I know the character is not gonna end up being Captain America. There’s a throughline, I know what that is, but if you go watch Lodge 49 and you go, “Okay, what guy is going to be Captain America?” And you’re like, “That fucking guy?” So there’s definitely something, like Dud’s going to be a U.S. agent. That’s a big leap to take as an actor. I knew I could do it, that wasn’t a concern, but it was getting comfortable in these ridiculous poses that you have to hit. But if you don’t commit to it, then it’s really bad — I learned that quickly — if you don’t commit to whatever the look is or the fighting thing. And then I got much better with my stunt double and my stunt performer, Justin Eaton. He was unbelievable. We got great at creating a character within the body language. That made me feel comfortable. But I’ll never forget, it started out with a photoshoot, which couldn’t have been worse because it was all about posing and that’s my kryptonite. If I feel like I’m posing, disaster for me.

Image via Marvel Studios

KURT: [Laughs] To this day.

WYATT: It doesn’t feel good. I feel like a fucking fraud. It’s horrible. And then I realized, “I can use all of this for the character because he should feel like a fraud.” So I used all that stuff. But I was very nervous because Marvel’s fucking huge and everybody expects whatever. “I don’t know what’s going to come of it. Do I suck at this guy? I hate the way I feel.” But I overcame it and figured it out.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is available to stream on Apple TV+.

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