Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters’ Randa Family Tree Explained

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is a show that spans decades and follows the story of three generations of the Randa family as they each have their own experiences with the Titans that roam the Earth, including Godzilla and Kong. The Apple TV+ series fills in the cracks and widens the universe of the Legendary Monsterverse franchise. Members of the Randa family were there almost at the beginning of the titular organization, which is devoted to studying, preserving, and sometimes hiding monsters, so it makes sense that the show is centered around them.

Over the course of 10 episodes in the first season, the Monarch: Legacy of Monsters timeline primarily takes place in the 1950s and in the year 2015. The 1950s represent the early stages of Monarch as the organization seeks to study the monsters that are living on Earth, and it is when the Randa family story begins with the discovery of Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms (MUTOs). In 2015, the Randa family and the rest of the world are dealing with the aftermath of Godzilla’s attack on San Francisco as everyone tries to put itself back together and prevent any further attacks.

William “Bill” Randa

Played by Anders Holm & John Goodman

First seen in Kong: Skull Island, William “Bill” Randa is a cryptozoologist who later begins working for Monarch in search of the truth about Titans and other monsters that have existed on Earth for thousands of years. John Goodman originated the character in Kong: Skull Island and reprises his role in the television series Monarch: Legend of Monsters. Before his death on Skull Island, Bill throws a bag of Monarch secrets into the sea meant for his son, Hiroshi, to find and preserve.

In the Monarch: Legacy of Monsters 1950s timeline, Bill is played by Anders Holm. Before he meets Lee Shaw and Keiko Miura in the Philippines jungle, he is researching mysterious patterns of an ancient dragon-like creature that is rumored to live in the area. Bill and Miura marry and have Hiroshi. Bill was also aboard the U.S.S. Lawton, a Navy ship that sank under mysterious circumstances off of Pearl Harbor in 1944 but was later discovered in the Philippines by Bill and Keiko Miura.

Dr. Keiko Miura

Played by Mari Yamamoto

Dr. Keiko Miura is a Japanese scientist who studied at the University of California, Berkeley, and is tracking radioactive signals throughout the world in search of what, or who, is causing the disturbances. Keiko falls in love with Bill Randa, and the two marry and have one son, Hiroshi. While she, Bill, and Lee Shaw are exploring radioactive signals in Kazakhstan that they believe tunnel through the Earth, Keikio is attacked and killed by a swarm of recently hatched insect-like monsters.

Hiroshi Randa

Played by Takehiro Hira

Hiroshi Randa is the son of Bill Randa and Dr. Keiko Miura. He works for Monarch and leads a double life with a wife and daughter in San Francisco and a wife and son in Tokyo. His work with Monarch was shrouded in secrecy, and he was always traveling to remote parts of the world, never spending much time with either of his two families. Several days after Godzilla attacked San Francisco in 2014, Hiroshi was asked by Monarch to travel to Alaska. Police in Fairbanks, Alaska, believe his plane went down in a storm, but the wreckage was never recovered.

Hiroshi did eventually find the bag of Monarch secrets his father left for him, and he locked it in his Tokyo office. When his son, Kentaro, and daughter, Cate, discover it, they trigger Monarch to start a manhunt for them that eventually leads them to Lee Shaw. Hiroshi is presumed dead in the plane crash, but there are many within Monarch who believe he may still be alive and being hidden by Monarch.

Cate Randa

Played by Anna Sawai

Cate Randa is the daughter of Hiroshi and Caroline Randa and lives in San Francisco. She was a school teacher and was on a bus with children on the Golden Gate Bridge when Godzilla attacked in 2014. Cate was able to narrowly escape, but many of her students were killed in the attack, and she suffers from post-traumatic stress whenever she is reminded of the attack she experienced firsthand.

After her father, Hiroshi, is presumed dead, Cate discovers secret documents and keys that point to the work he had ongoing in Tokyo. She travels there and uncovers not only his Monarch secrets but the whole other family Hiroshi was keeping from Cate and her mother, including the brother she never knew she had, Kentaro. Angered by the deception of her father, she is determined to find answers to his past and what his work was with the organization that was present in the aftermath of the Godzilla attack.

Kentaro Randa

Played by Ren Watabe

Kentaro Randa is the son of Hiroshi and Emiko Randa and lives in Tokyo, Japan. Kantaro’s life as a young artist is upended when his secret sister, Cate Randa, shows up at the apartment he shares with his mother, asking about their recently deceased father. Kentaro is enraged that his father led a double life and reluctantly agrees to help Cate dig into exactly what Hiroshi was doing with Monarch.

Their investigation sends Monarch goons to his Tokyo apartment, but Kentaro is able to narrowly escape after his mother gives him a picture of his “Uncle” Lee Shaw. Paired with information Kentaro discovers at his father’s Tokyo office, he and Cate go off in search of Shaw and answers about their father’s life.

Emiko Randa

Played by Qyoko Kudo

Emiko Randa is the wife of Hiroshi Randa and lives in Tokyo with her son, Kentaro. She, like Cate and Emiko, seems to be unaware that Hiroshi had a secret life in the United States, but she is able to make peace with it and help Kentaro with his resentment and anger toward his father. She helps Kentaro escape when Monarch representatives come to their apartment looking for the documents and data files Kentaro discovered in his father’s office.

Caroline Randa

Played by Tamlyn Tomita

Caroline Randa is the mother of Cate Randa and was married to her father, Hiroshi Randa, back in the United States. She and her daughter were displaced during Godzilla’s attack on San Franciso in 2014 and spent the next few days desperately searching for Hiroshi. Caroline was very hesitant about Cate making the trip to Tokyo to uncover some of the secrets Hiroshi had in his work.

Leeland “Lee” Shaw III

Played by Wyatt Russell & Kurt Russell

Army Lieutenant Lee Shaw is first introduced to Bill Randa and Dr. Keiko Miura when he is asked to serve as a security envoy to Keiko while she explores radioactive anomalies throughout Asia and the Pacific Rim. Shaw is played in the 1950s by Wyatt Russell and in the 2015 timeline by the actor’s father, Kurt Russell. Kurt and Wyatt Russell worked together to craft the Lee Shaw character, who features prominently in both timelines of the show.

In the 1950s, Shaw is reluctant to believe what Bill and Keiko are searching for, but after he saves them from a monster attack aboard the U.S.S. Lawton, he’s convinced to stick with them on their mission, and the trio work together until Keiko’s death in 1959. In 2015, Shaw lives in an assisted living facility outside Tokyo where he’s heavily monitored by Monarch, even at his advanced age. When Kentaro and Cate locate their “Uncle” Shaw at the end of episode 2 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, he informs them what they know about their father’s death is likely a lie, but pursuing the truth will have consequences.