Wondering how all the Monsterverse and other kaiju narratives and timelines fit together?
Perhaps, like @ValueSubtracted@StarTrek.website you’re interested getting to know more of the franchise? Or, like me, you’ve seen a lot of some production eras, but not the current one that’s turning out to be the longest running since the original Showa films.
With different production companies, creators and writers each having their own take on the universe, some of them licensed to make films and other creations simultaneously, it can be challenging to sort it out.
I found this article helpful for placing movies and television shows in the timeline of the Legendary Pictures Monsterverse. As an aside, it’s worth noting that while many commentators assume that M:LOM’s other place Axis Mundi is the upside down ‘Hollow Earth’ inside our Earth, others note that it may be another dimension or universe.
Monarch's dual storyline spans two distinct time periods. The "present" day storyline takes place in 2017. It follows Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), her half-brother Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe), their father Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira), hacker May (Kiersey Clemons), and Bill's time-displaced mother and Monarch co-founder Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto). The *Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 premiere picks up in the immediate aftermath of Season 1, with Kong attacking a Monarch base that has been set up on Skull Island after Cate, May, and Keiko returned from the Hollow Earth. In terms of the MonsterVerse timeline, that places Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2:
- 44 years after the events of Kong: Skull Island;(1973).
- Three years after the events of Godzilla (2014)
- Two years after Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 1 (2015)
- Two years before the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters;(2019)
The second storyline details an early Monarch mission, centered on the days of Keiko, Bill Randa (Anders Holmes), and Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell in flashbacks and Kurt Russell in the present-day storyline). The flashback sequence of episode 1 is set in 1957. This would be about three years after Lee Shaw was officially assigned to work with Monarch following the atomic bomb testing on Godzilla referenced in the first MonsterVerse Godzilla film, and two years before Keiko was lost and dragged to the Hollow Earth in 1959.
Monarch Season 1's flashbacks covered 1952, 1962, 1982, and 2012, and the same is expected for Season 2. Fans are curious if, since Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is bringing Kong in, will the flashbacks detail the years following Kong: Skull Island? While it seems unlikely that Brie Larson and Tom Hiddleston will reprise their roles as Mason Weaver and James Conrad, Monarch can mine plenty of unexplored story between the isolated events on Skull Island and the eventual world-changing events of Godzilla in 2014. One hope is that Monarch Season 2 will tie into the animated series Skull Island.
One never knows with Tom Hiddleston. Some creative control seems to be a priority for him now that he’s moved on from his Marvel role as Loki.
He’s recently taken an EP role in the continuing series based on the Le Carré novel The Night Manager, picking up a plot line 10 years later. I could see Hiddleston being willing to play some role in a television series or movie set in the 1980s.
Brie Larsen would be more challenging for a movie but, given that she’s appeared in The Bear a recurring appearance in one season of television isn’t out of possibility.