Leading up to the premiere of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Dorkaholics had the pleasure of speaking to three of the series’ executive producers: Matt Shakman, Chris Black & Matt Fraction.
Jessica Tseang: How did you guys put the international audience and children in mind for the show?
Chris Black: First of all, Godzilla is a global phenomenon. He is a cultural phenomenon. His cultural heritage is Japanese, but people know Godzilla around the world.
Matt Fraction: He’s a citizen of the world but his passport is Japanese.
Chris Black: Exactly, the way they know Coke or McDonald’s, they know Godzilla. It’s like you can ask anybody anywhere. So, we knew we wanted to do a global show. We didn’t want to do an American show, even though we’re Americans, the point was to send this story out [as] something that would appeal to a global audience.
Matt Shakman: And to be able to film in Tokyo where Godzilla was born, to be there for so much of our episodes one and two was wonderful. We went to Toho Studios, we met with the leadership of Toho, they are our partners [and] they’ve been wonderful partners. We got to film scenes of people running from Godzilla down the streets of Tokyo. And as a longtime fan of Godzilla, that just felt like stepping into a Toho movie myself and it was definitely one for the bucket list to check.
Chris Black: And to be as respectful and authentic as we could, not to fake it, not to shoot Vancouver for Tokyo, to go to Tokyo, to hire Japanese actors to make sure that the dialogue and the language was correct and appropriate, and that it would work for a Japanese audience was incredibly important for us.
Matt Fraction: And to shoot parts of Tokyo you normally don’t see in American film and television. We went places that are rich and real and true, but aren’t Shibuya or Shinjuku, we went all over the city and shot all kinds of places, and it was great. It felt like it had to start here, it would have felt wrong to begin anywhere else.
Catch the first two episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on Apple TV+ starting on Friday, November 17 with one new episode every Friday through January 12, 2024.
