Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters Star Reveals Monarch’s Biggest Problem

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters gives viewers the best look yet at the shadowy organization that is ever-present in the continuously expanding MonsterVerse. The series’ unique dual-timeline storytelling approach lends it the ability to explore the group’s founding in the 1950s as a purely scientific pursuit while simultaneously exposing Monarch’s philosophical changes over the following decades. By filling in the gaps between 2014’s Godzilla and 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters recontextualizes the ways Monarch plays into the events of those films.

Monarch is brought to life by a range of characters, but one of the most relatable is Tim, played by Joe Tippett. Tim is an idealist in a cynical organization, who is able to see the good in a group that has arguably strayed from its purpose. During Joe Tippett’s interview with Screen Rant, the actor detailed the true issue at the heart of Monarch’s operation:

Joe Tippett: I think what has happened is that the organization has expanded and gotten so big, and it’s become this huge bureaucracy, [and] they have lost sight of what it is that they were there to do. I think Monarch probably, at this point, spends more time trying to keep Monarch a secret than [trying to] prevent these Titan events.

I think Verdugo is a great example. As Elisa’s saying, we’re kind of anti-establishment and she’s corporate, but she has bosses to answer to and stuff like that. It’s just this massive chain of like, “But we have resources; we can help people,” and I think that it’s become more important to the organization to protect itself.

How Tim Makes Monarch Sympathetic In Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ timeline allows it to explore multiple eras of the group’s history, but Joe Tippett’s Tim is the best case for Monarch’s true potential. In the MonsterVerse films, Monarch and its employees are often at fault for failing to prevent Titan catastrophes. Tim, on the other hand, proves himself early in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters to be a dedicated and caring scientist whose priorities are correctly placed on stopping future events. To Tippett’s above quote, Tim is one of the first Monarch characters who seems less concerned with secrecy than actually saving lives; the tragedy is that Monarch as a whole rarely seems to abide by those principles.

With Monarch’s origins explained (and potentially retconned) in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the series is able to show the good intentions behind the work done by Bill Randa, Keiko Miura, and Lee Shaw. Their excitement and passion is hardly seen in the ‘present-day’ Monarch, except in the character of Tim, whose genuine interest in the Titans themselves helps carry the group’s original intent forward. Legacy is the operative word in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and no one in the organization appears to honor Monarch’s legacy the way that Tim does. Tippett also shared this on the subject:

Joe Tippett: Tim is old-school. I think he would have posters of young Bill Randa and Keiko on his wall and stuff like that; he looks up to those guys, and their mission statement, that little shoestring organization that they started, is what he wanted to go to work for.

Even Tim’s struggles at Monarch harken back to the founding of the organization, making a sympathetic situation out of internal strife. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters revealed that, in Monarch’s early days, the group struggled to find funding and support from the US military. Tim faces a similar struggle in the series as he works to have his own ideas and theories become true priorities for the organization. Monarch has largely been a mysterious and dangerous presence in the MonsterVerse thus far, but thanks to characters like Tim, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has given viewers something to root for.