The first trailer for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ second season has been released, teasing the further adventures of cinematic titans like Godzilla, Kong, and Kurt Russell on the small-screen. The first season was a solid if occasionally disparate science fiction series that took a grounded and measured look at what it would be like to be an on-the-ground human being living amidst the batshit insanity of the larger MonsterVerse.
If a Godzilla TV show, with a budget big enough to fit the gargantuan blockbuster needs of such a project, sounds a little insane to you, you’re not alone. However, the show was apparently a successful enough venture that Apple TV was willing to foot the bill for a second season.
Now, with the first trailer released, that’s an even more insane thing to consider, because it looks like this season is going to be even bigger than the last with the full-on follow-through on a tease planted by the final shot of the last season: King Kong looks to be a main player in season two. The trailer also reveals that the premiere date of the new season is February 27, 2026.
One of the very best elements of the first season of Monarch was the one-two punch of Kurt Russell and his real-life son Wyatt Russell playing the same character, Lee Shaw, across two different points in time. Wyatt played the character during the flashback-set half of the series, which unfolds across the 1950s and chronicles the rise of Monarch as an institution and humanity’s history of interactions with Godzilla. Meanwhile, Kurt played the character during the modern half of the story, which happens in 2015 and sees character grappling with the aftermath of Godzilla’s resurgence, as chronicled in Gareth Edwards’ 2014 film, Godzilla.
At the end of season one, Kurt’s iteration of Lee Shaw appears to sacrifice himself so that the rest of the main characters can escape through a dimensional portal as Godzilla engages in a big battle. Shortly thereafter, the remaining team of characters find themselves having traveled through time and space in unexpected ways, emerging onto Skull Island in 2017 and coming face-to-face with the big guy: Kong. This first trailer for the second season confirms that Kong will be a major element of the show moving forward and that Kurt Russell will also be returning in some capacity. Whether that means via flashback or his survival of the finale of the first season is as of yet undetermined, but Russell’s recent comment in a behind-the-scenes video that, “You ain’t getting rid of me that easy,” certainly seems to imply that Lee Shaw will ride again.
As for Kong, while the film Kong: Skull Island was released in 2017, it was set during the ‘70s, meaning that this time period is largely uncharted for this character. In the trailer, we see Kong clearly on the loose and wreaking monumental havoc, as well as a litany of other monsters, indicating that things will not go swimmingly for the returning troop of characters.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 2 premieres February 27, 2026 on