Kurt and Wyatt Russell received offers to collaborate on the same project a few times before appearing as different ages of Lee Shaw in ‘Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters.’ The two rejected them because they couldn’t find a project that really caught their interest.
In a chat with RadioTimes.com, Wyatt revealed:
“There were lots of projects that we turned down together, I mean, lots, maybe like four or five, but they were always father and son. It was always father and son, and nothing ever grabbed us that was like, ‘Wow, that’s such a good story,’ or, ‘Gotta play that character.’ And then this came along, and it was a really unique idea. It was in a very big arena. Godzilla can’t get much bigger. And so it felt like, ‘Hey, if you’re gonna, like, take a swing, this is a pretty good pitch to take swing at.'”
The Father And Son Needed Some Time To Work Together
In the sixth work and second show of the MonsterVerse series, the story went back and forth in time, showing Lee Shaw’s life and experiences with Godzilla and other Titans over 50 years.
The Russells worked hard to make sure their versions of the character matched up well, with Wyatt playing him in the 1950s and Kurt in 2015. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 37-year-old actor had to wait a decade to end up in this show with his father:
“[Starting out,] I just wanted to do something that was my own. I’ve now been doing this for 15 years, and I wouldn’t have been able to do [something like ‘Monarch’] 10 years ago. So, this felt like a time where I could go, ‘You know what? I can stand on my own here and actually be an addition to [‘Monarch’] in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to be, at all, 10 years ago.'”
The Duo May Return For A New Season
‘Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters’ premiered on Apple TV+ on November 17, 2023. While it got pretty good reviews, with an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an average score of 7/10, the first season ended on January 12.
The season finale left the story open, but there’s no news yet about a second season from showrunners Chris Black and Matt Fraction. The father and son duo are up for more episodes if they happen, though, as Kurt told The Wrap:
“Don’t know. That’s up to them, and we’ll do it… Whatever. We’ll talk about it if they want to talk about it. But the thing that’s great is that it just got to a place where the last shot was… That’s as good as it gets in terms of last image impact.”
Check out the show’s Season 1 trailer in the video below.
