Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on AppleTV+ [Weekly Ongoing Discussion]

[Legion1979]

^Are people speculating that this series will retcon everything-post 2014 and follow a new timeline?

no ... I don't think anyone thinks that. The furthest I said I wouldn't be surprised if they retcon the line about no 2014-2019 Godzilla sightings in KOTM to allow for more godzilla screen time, if they end up giving goji any decent screen time (which might not even happen who knows).

I personally think for budgetary reasons each episode is going to be heavy on the human characters with kaiju stuff only sprinkled here and there.

Personally, I think an animated show would have been the smarter way to go.

[KingKaiju]

The report said post-2014. So I wonder if this means that it could be a show about the Russells. I’m excited though! I’d hoped that we get a show. This is cool, and Apple has money. So they can afford to risk this! The lack of HBO Max also sounds like a big “fuck you” from Legendary to WB.

I also wonder if they’re throwing Godzilla on TV, while letting Kong lead the features.

[miguelnuva]

The comic story lines are so isolated I believe it when I see it. Legendary pictures and Legendary comics work so close with the Monsterverse however I'd be shocked if they retcon anything.

If Star Wars can make Obi-Wan fight Maul and Vader in between RotS and ANH then Legendary can fit a Godzilla stroy in between g14 and kotm.

Aftershock is the only comic in that period they have to worry about any way.

I'm still thinking we get reused footage and mention of Godzilla. With maybe 5 minutes total of new footage.

Going back to g14 era implies to me they want to limit the Titans while if you wanted to show them off you would go to kotm timeline.

If you wanted a Titans show snd wanted to show Godzilla then episode 1 should start with the bowing scene.

[LegendZilla]

Anyone else care to speculate as to why this isn't coming to HBO Max? I saw someone say on a video that maybe WB's service is failing, so they're letting other people license their properties.

[Monke]

Anyone else care to speculate as to why this isn't coming to HBO Max? I saw someone say on a video that maybe WB's service is failing, so they're letting other people license their properties.

iirc, Legendary wanted to test the market because there were services bidding more than HBO Max for it

[miguelnuva]

Anyone else care to speculate as to why this isn't coming to HBO Max? I saw someone say on a video that maybe WB's service is failing, so they're letting other people license their properties.

This is just speculation but Legendary could be mad at WB over the Dune and GvsK situation.

[Major sssspielberg!]

I got a feeling Toho trying to spread it's IP across as many services as possible. Right now they've got a decent hit on Netflix, a bunch of content on Max, and soon some flashy new content on Apple.

[king_ghidorah]

Or it's exactly what the Press Release stated...that Apple ponied up the most amount of money and Legendary is in a deep financial hole that it needs to dig itself out of....

[Pkmatrix]

Anyone else care to speculate as to why this isn't coming to HBO Max? I saw someone say on a video that maybe WB's service is failing, so they're letting other people license their properties.

That video is talking nonsense, HBO Max is currently one of the most successful streaming services. They're currently #4 behind Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+ making them the second most successful studio-run service.

As for why? My guess is that Legendary doesn't want to be tied so closely and be so reliant on Warner Brothers, especially after WB tried to make some unilateral decisions on how to distribute GvK and Dune. I also don't think they like people referring to the MonsterVerse as a WB franchise when it's actually a Legendary franchise with WB as a junior co-producing partner there just for distribution. While they probably have contracts in place already requiring WB involvement in the movies, Legendary is still the one who actually owns the rights and licenses so they're free to do whatever they want outside that. Which would help explain why Skull Island is going to Netflix and this series is going to Apple TV.

Another point is while it may be inconvenient for fans, in the big picture sense by spreading it out this way they're going to overall reach more people. Legendary doesn't have its own streaming service, so from their POV it actually doesn't make very much sense to limit themselves to JUST HBO Max since that'll limit themselves to only the 73 Million HBO Max subscribers. By spreading it out so MonsterVerse films are on Amazon and HBO Max, the Skull Island series is on Netflix, and this series is on Apple TV they now expand the overall MonsterVerse's audience to potentially up to 500 million people.

[Titanus_Rodan]

[quote=king_ghidorah post_id=1868438 time=1642861478 user_id=1019]
Or it's exactly what the Press Release stated...that Apple ponied up the most amount of money and Legendary is in a deep financial hole that it needs to dig itself out of....
[/quote]

Deep financial hole? That hasn’t been said anywhere…

[darthzilla99]

Anyone else care to speculate as to why this isn't coming to HBO Max? I saw someone say on a video that maybe WB's service is failing, so they're letting other people license their properties.

That video is talking nonsense, HBO Max is currently one of the most successful streaming services. They're currently #4 behind Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+ making them the second most successful studio-run service.

As for why? My guess is that Legendary doesn't want to be tied so closely and be so reliant on Warner Brothers, especially after WB tried to make some unilateral decisions on how to distribute GvK and Dune. I also don't think they like people referring to the MonsterVerse as a WB franchise when it's actually a Legendary franchise with WB as a junior co-producing partner there just for distribution. While they probably have contracts in place already requiring WB involvement in the movies, Legendary is still the one who actually owns the rights and licenses so they're free to do whatever they want outside that. Which would help explain why Skull Island is going to Netflix and this series is going to Apple TV.

Another point is while it may be inconvenient for fans, in the big picture sense by spreading it out this way they're going to overall reach more people. Legendary doesn't have its own streaming service, so from their POV it actually doesn't make very much sense to limit themselves to JUST HBO Max since that'll limit themselves to only the 73 Million HBO Max subscribers. By spreading it out so MonsterVerse films are on Amazon and HBO Max, the Skull Island series is on Netflix, and this series is on Apple TV they now expand the overall MonsterVerse's audience to potentially up to 500 million people.

Another point to consider is HBO Max is not in every country. Apple+ is available in more countries so it's also spreading the net even more.

[Pkmatrix]

Anyone else care to speculate as to why this isn't coming to HBO Max? I saw someone say on a video that maybe WB's service is failing, so they're letting other people license their properties.

That video is talking nonsense, HBO Max is currently one of the most successful streaming services. They're currently #4 behind Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+ making them the second most successful studio-run service.

As for why? My guess is that Legendary doesn't want to be tied so closely and be so reliant on Warner Brothers, especially after WB tried to make some unilateral decisions on how to distribute GvK and Dune. I also don't think they like people referring to the MonsterVerse as a WB franchise when it's actually a Legendary franchise with WB as a junior co-producing partner there just for distribution. While they probably have contracts in place already requiring WB involvement in the movies, Legendary is still the one who actually owns the rights and licenses so they're free to do whatever they want outside that. Which would help explain why Skull Island is going to Netflix and this series is going to Apple TV.

Another point is while it may be inconvenient for fans, in the big picture sense by spreading it out this way they're going to overall reach more people. Legendary doesn't have its own streaming service, so from their POV it actually doesn't make very much sense to limit themselves to JUST HBO Max since that'll limit themselves to only the 73 Million HBO Max subscribers. By spreading it out so MonsterVerse films are on Amazon and HBO Max, the Skull Island series is on Netflix, and this series is on Apple TV they now expand the overall MonsterVerse's audience to potentially up to 500 million people.

Another point to consider is HBO Max is not in every country. Apple+ is available in more countries so it's also spreading the net even more.

It's a bit of a win-win. Apple has been looking for that killer-app franchise they could use to really expand the service's footprint, and Godzilla is the sort of world-popular franchise that could finally do that for them.

[Titanus_Rodan]

Watching KOTM and it gave me more thoughts on potential story ideas that they could use in this series

-The protests at the beginning of the movie in Washington DC where the public demands that the government “Destroy All Monsters”. Hell the Senate Hearing scene alone hits that there is knowledge of other Titans besides Godzilla, the MUTOS and Kong.

-The sea life dying due to supposed efforts to locate and find Godzilla

-Jonah and his team being involved in trafficking Titan DNA. How would they get ahold of it?

-Mark commenting that he thought Godzilla was “missing” with Sam replying “only if you don’t know where to look”

So already there’s some interesting story potential with those things alone.

[king_ghidorah]

Or it's exactly what the Press Release stated...that Apple ponied up the most amount of money and Legendary is in a deep financial hole that it needs to dig itself out of....

Deep financial hole? That hasn’t been said anywhere…

Wanda is looking to divest themselves of Legendary…..lots of sales and acquisition talk.

[Thatguy4683]

Mark commenting that he thought Godzilla was “missing” with Sam replying “only if you don’t know where to look”

Huh… Seem like we can have more sceen time of Godzilla without retconing the line “Godzilla was missing five years”

[king_ghidorah]

Agreed. Maybe he didn’t have full on battles in cities and even if he did….I’m not sure “five years” is ever uttered. Godzilla could be missing for only two for all we know.

[darthzilla99]

For those saying it might retcon the comics like Aftershock, what exactly is there to retcon or otherwise contradict? The only thing I can see maybe is something to do with Godzilla's plates (and even then, the comic just shows the plates being destroyed, we don't see them grow into the kotm plates). The comics are just vague adventure of the week type stories. I imagine it wouldn't be any different than a typical episodic ultraman series.

[Pkmatrix]

Mark commenting that he thought Godzilla was “missing” with Sam replying “only if you don’t know where to look”

Huh… Seem like we can have more sceen time of Godzilla without retconing the line “Godzilla was missing five years”

I don't understand anyone thinking that was something needed to be retconned?? KOTM makes clear that that was a lie, Godzilla was never missing and MONARCH knew where he was the whole time. It just means whatever he was up to didn't end up in any major cities, and if it did end up in a populated area got covered by MONARCH...pretty much exactly as they'd been doing for decades prior to G14.

[Chris55]

Anyone else care to speculate as to why this isn't coming to HBO Max? I saw someone say on a video that maybe WB's service is failing, so they're letting other people license their properties.

My guess is that Legendary doesn't want to be tied so closely and be so reliant on Warner Brothers, especially after WB tried to make some unilateral decisions on how to distribute GvK and Dune.

Legendary and WB are still working together on other projects like a sequel to "A Christmas Story" for example: https://ew.com/movies/a-christmas-story ... to-return/

I know it's not in Apple tv's history to not offer blu-ray releases for their shows but I hope that changes.

[miguelnuva]

Mark commenting that he thought Godzilla was “missing” with Sam replying “only if you don’t know where to look”

Huh… Seem like we can have more sceen time of Godzilla without retconing the line “Godzilla was missing five years”

I don't understand anyone thinking that was something needed to be retconned?? KOTM makes clear that that was a lie, Godzilla was never missing and MONARCH knew where he was the whole time. It just means whatever he was up to didn't end up in any major cities, and if it did end up in a populated area got covered by MONARCH...pretty much exactly as they'd been doing for decades prior to G14.

Godzilla can't hit a big majorly populated city between aftershock and kotm. He could have plenty of screen time as long as Monarch can cover it up.