Age of The Nerd
More than just a series set in the Monsterverse, focused on Titan creatures such as Godzilla and other MUTOs, Apple TV+’s new series “Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters” focuses on the more human/familial aspects of the universe that spans over many decades.
The main thread of the series is the story of two siblings learning about their father’s secret life and his ties to a mysterious organization called Monarch. They end up discovering much more than they anticipated in regard to their father’s research, new Titans, and their tie to the origins of Monarch.
We recently sat down for an exclusive interview with “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” producer Tory Tunnell to talk about her word on the series. Tunnell’s husband Joby Harold is also an executive producer on the series. Together both Tunnell and Harold run the production company Safehouse Pictures.
Founded by Harold and Tunnell in 2005, Safehouse Pictures is continuing to keep busy as they have a deal in television with Legendary TV, and a feature first-look deal with Amazon. Currently they are producing the sci-fi thriller Atlas, starring Jennifer Lopez, Sterling K. Brown and Simu Liu, for Netflix. The company’s past credits include Spinning Out, Underground, My Blind Brother and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.
Also, they are in active development on a large variety of projects including the World War II action-drama The Liberators with Michael B. Jordan, Battle of Britain for Ridley Scott, and I.F., a live-action hybrid family comedy with Tiffany Haddish attached to star, among many more.
In our exclusive interview, Tunnell details information about bringing a more human side to the Monsterverse, her experiences working on the series, how it connects to fans and more!
We wanted to talk a bit about how this is not only just a chasing monsters’ series but also a chasing family story as well. We love that the familial thread is so strong throughout the series.
TORY TUNNELL: Yes! In our title we use the word “legacy” and it is something that is really the DNA of our show. It is legacy of monsters, and we are kind of featuring our hero monsters and building new ones along the way, but we’re also really examining familial relationships across time and in the present day. I think that is the hook of our show and that’s surprising when you go in and see it, but I think that’s really robust and what keeps it interesting.
Can you speak about the ways in which the series is able to connect with long-time Monsterverse fans, but also still be very relatable to new audiences as well?
That’s a great question! For fans, I think they get to learn about this organization, Monarch, and that is what Matt Fraction really brought to the table. We get a look at this organization that was very much behind-the-scenes and later on the film we see them with logo briefcases, etc. and we wonder what happened during that time and how did they get to become who they were and for an entry point for fans we really get to explore, and Matt Fraction will explain that our show takes place between the raindrops of the different movies and you really get to learn what happened off screen. I think for new fans what’s so exciting is that at its’ heart this is a really juicy family drama. It also has a very robust love triangle…this is something where you come to the show for the monsters but stay for the relationships and the characters. That is what we get to do over the course of ten hours.
Going back to the original Toho films, can you talk about the way Godzilla and the other Titans have continuously evolved over the years? Obviously, things that have happened to them in previous films must have some effect on the way they are designed now.
Right…and also our first Godzilla was a man in a suit which is very different than how we are looking at him now. One of the things we always love talking about with Godzilla is…and he’s such a fascinating character…he’s not a villain. I think a lot of people that don’t know the IP think he’s a bad guy, but actually Godzilla has always been someone who represented a lot of the challenges that have been oppressed on humanity such as in its’ origin nuclear power and when we were developing this series, it being representative of climate change and then we were talking about it just being COVID but I think that Godzilla is someone who is keeping us safe from other Titans and I think there is a lot of grey in there…he’s just destructive. I mean you wouldn’t want him in your backyard, but at the same time he’s someone who we revere, so the expansion of the character has continued to expand that story. I think that in our Godzilla, our amazing VFX supervisor Sean Konrad, who was involved in the 2014 Gareth Edward’s “Godzilla” film, he really understands that nuance of building him physically and to adapt to time. We are right about there with that first film that came out from Legendary.
“Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters” premiered on November 17th and Apple TV+ will air new episodes on Wednesday!
