The clash of Godzilla and King Kong in the most recent chapter of Legendary Entertainment's Monsterverse does quite a bit to expand the mythology of the kaiju and hollow earth. Revisiting previous story points like Skull Island and the family at the center of Godzilla: King Of The Monsters ties the two ends of the franchise together. One common through-line in the movies that doesn't see enough exploration, however, is Monarch.
In the Monsterverse, Monarch is the secret organization that always seems to end up in the middle of the battle. It's the group that brings soldiers and scientists to Skull Island and is the group Emma Russell works for when she finds a way to mimic the alpha commands of the different kaiju in King Of The Monsters. Beyond Monarch being an ever-present force of research, the organization doesn't get fleshed out much in the movies. Monarch deserves a movie of its own to give more focus to the human element of stories.
What The Audience Knows About Monarch So Far
Monarch's origins begin in the Monsterverse with Kong: Skull Island. There, a team of researchers takes a military escort to the mysterious island. Over the course of the movie, it's revealed that the mission is a last-ditch effort to prove that giant prehistoric creatures still exist around the world.
The discovery of Kong essentially saves the organization from going under. By the time the timeline reaches the modern Godzilla movies, Monarch has bases installed all over the world. Most of what the audience learns about the organization is not in the movies themselves. Instead, it occurs through graphics in the credits of the movies.
Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, however, demonstrates that there are potentially hundreds of research facilities and offices around the globe. Installations study Mothra, Ghidora, and Rodan. Scientist Emma Russell also finds a way to present herself as the alpha to the kaiju. Her research focuses on the frequencies of the sounds they make. What the audience doesn't know, however, is how Monarch gets from a fledgling organization that barely survives the discovery of Kong to the premiere secret group studying kaiju phenomena and history everywhere.
How Legendary Bolsters The Story Material
Legendary bolsters their Monsterverse with content outside of the movies. A lot of studios - especially those featuring expansive universes - do this. For example, CW's Arrowverse has comic book stories for the Arrow and Flash series. Marvel Studios frequently creates prequel comic books for their movies. They also have television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to expand the story further.
Legendary does the same for their Monsterverse. Stories of Monarch are present in tie-in comic books. For example, one of the pieces of information viewers wouldn't see in the movies? Monarch has its own museum that houses kaiju memorabilia and research notes that visitors can view. Legendary even has a tie-in website that allows visitors to peruse some of the research Monarch has done.
The only trouble with this approach is that not every fan is going to go out of their way to seek out tie-in material. Fans who are heavily invested in the mythology might. They want the backstory for different characters and discoveries, not just the big monster battles.
Monarch's Most Interesting Detail Is Their Growth
One of the most interesting (and overlooked) details of Monarch's presence in the Monsterverse is their growth into a global secret. Set in 1973, Kong: Skull Island demonstrates that Monarch already operates in secrecy. They take on a mission under the guise of wanting natural resources from a nearly impossible to reach the island. The organization swears the survivors of the mission to secrecy. They also share images of cave paintings of the monsters still to come in the next movie.
Cut to 2021, and there's an entire bio-dome over Skull Island keeping Kong locked in and safe from the outside world. Monarch employs a team of scientists to study him. That's 50 years of time unexplored. During that 50 years, Monarch not only successfully sends another team back, but is able to set up shop on the island. Kong even lives with them.
Likewise, the research facility in Godzilla: King Of The Monsters that houses Mothra is built right into the rock formations hiding her cocoon. The scientists currently working for the company haven't interacted with her species yet. It's unclear how long Monarch monitored her cocoon - or whether they destroyed other members of her species to set up camp.
Of course, the tie-in merchandise and website provide a lot of answers to questions viewers may have. Those tie-ins also reveal that Monarch has pretty fascinating locations for their stations. Monarch locations include Loch Ness in Scotland, Cairo in Egypt, and one in the middle of the Indian Ocean, amongst others. For fans who want to see just a little bit more than just the knock-down, drag-out fights between kaiju, seeing how Monarch manages to track down these monsters and set up research stations would make for a fascinating movie.
Monarch's Story Deserves To Be Told
What Legendary needs to do is fill in the gaps in their Monsterverse. King Of The Monsters proved that their audience holds an interest in more than Godzilla and Kong. Scientists who put their lives on the line to study kaiju should be more than just a story footnote.
Monarch also deserves to be more than just the shadowy organization in the background of a fight. Fleshing out the story of the organization has the potential to bring the human element back to a world of monsters.