While those of us who were already fans of the Monsterverse extended Godzilla universe continuity have been watching Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on AppleTV, it turns out that Amazon Prime has had a licence to stream it until March 31st.
Currently, the second season of this popular action epic is rolling out on Apple TV, but season 1 is one of the most-watched Prime Video shows on the planet at the moment. This brief stint on Prime Video will be short-lived, however, since the series will be removed from Prime Video less than 2 weeks on April 1, 2026. Don’t miss your chance to binge this celebrated series before it’s gone.
If you’re thinking of giving Monarch a try, and don’t have AppleTV, this may be a good opportunity.
I would have to disagree. They are different media, drawing different audiences.
I’ve watched monster movies since childhood as well as science fiction television. While there are emotional and character stories in them, they have a fairly predictable pattern towards a major climactic fight.
My partner has no interest in kaiju movies but is really enjoying Monarch because it has, for them, enough intrigue and character stories to hold their attention.
If they have no interest in Kaiju movies that more or less is kind of what I was referring to. They arent there for the big monsters and theres less of them in it to appeal to a wider audience.
The question I have in my mind is whether the Godzilla audience that is primarily there for big monsters (and/or powerups) is the American / English language audience vs the Japanese and global one.
Monarch is ranking better with Asian audiences than English speaking ones, which suggests that it may have a different reach than other American licensed-kaiju media.
I haven’t seen any Japanese reviews — the Japan Times feature was more about how the show is being increasingly produced in Japan.
That is a really great point. They do seem to want to ‘expand’ the franchise more in recent years.