The Godzilla x Kong Monsterverse Is Expanding — But Maybe Not Where You Think

While Godzilla x Kong: A New Empire continues to clean up at the box office, the time-jumping adventures in the MonsterVerse are continuing on the small screen. After a stunning Season 1 finale — in which Godzilla was established as a kind of time traveler — Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is coming back for more.

Apple recently confirmed that Monarch Season 2 has officially been greenlit. But even more interesting, spin-offs to Monarch are coming, too. What does all of this have to do with the blockbuster movies that might follow A New Empire? Well, for now, those things may not be as connected as one might think. Here’s what we know about the state of the Monsterverse on TV and how it may — or may not — directly connect to the new movies.

Monarch Season 2 and MonsterVerse spinoffs

The Season 1 finale of Monarch ended with a time-jump cliffhanger. Instead of emerging from Axis Mundi (a timeless realm within Hollow Earth) in 2015 where they belong, Cate, May, and Cate’s grandmother Keiko ended up in 2017. They’re clearly on Skull Island and King Kong is seen lurking around — but it should be noted that this version of King Kong predates his appearances in 2021’s Godzilla Vs. Kong, and 2024’s Godzilla x Kong: A New Empire.

In fact, although Apple is expanding the MonsterVerse on TV with Monarch Season 2 and yet-to-be-revealed “multiple spinoff series based on the franchise,” we don’t actually know how much of this directly connects with the movies. Yes, this is still the same shared universe, but back when Season 1 began, producers Chris Black and Matt Fraction pointed out to Inverse that the goal of Monarch was to tell stories within “the big gaps in that cinematic timeline.” Meaning that, for now, overt crossover from human characters in the Legendary MonsterVerse movies into the Apple TV+ series may not happen.

The future of the MonsterVerse

So Apple has confirmed “multiple spinoffs,” but what will those shows be about? Right now, we have no idea, though it’s possible that more action could take place in Hollow Earth, with monsters as main characters instead of humans. Sounds wild, right? But, at the same time, you could imagine a limited spinoff that felt more like a nature documentary about the monsters, rather than a family saga about human monster hunters. (Godzilla x Kong also proved that wordless scenes in which Kong can just vibe out with other giant apes are totally entertaining.)

It’s also possible that a series more focused on the events of the 1970s could unfold. Because Lee Shaw jumps ahead to the 1980s in Season 1, and we end up back in the present, the moment where the TV show’s Bill Randa (Anders Holm) becomes the Bill Randa of the movies (John Goodman), isn’t really explored or depicted in Monarch thus far. Could we get a show about Bill Randa’s path to the events of Skull Island? Because Apple has mentioned “multiple spinoffs,” one has to wonder how many time periods and monsters this shared TV universe is going to cover.

Meanwhile, Monarch Season 2 will almost certainly pick up where Season 1 left off. And that means a lot of King Kong action, showcasing the biggest Monsterverse heavyweight who was pretty much entirely absent in Season 1. The story will also have to address the time travel trauma of Cate, May, and Keiko, and also chart exactly how Monarch continues to morph into the organization we saw in Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019), and the two most recent sequels. Plus, now that the nature of Axis Mundi is fully understood, it seems possible that Monarch Season 2 could evolve into a pseudo-time-travel show.

The Monsterverse movies might be taking big swings in theaters, but the world-building of this strange, multi-era sci-fi world is clearly happening on TV.

Monarch streams on Apple TV.