Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is coming to a close. The penultimate episode airs today, Jan. 5, and the finale on Jan. 12, so now is a perfect time to catch up on the show if you haven’t seen it already. The first live-action show of the MonsterVerse is an epic in every sense of the word, exploring the clandestine Monarch agency by following an ensemble cast of characters from the 1950s and the 2010s.

The narrative center of Monarch is surrounded by three major characters in 2015. After an intro flashing back to John Goodman in Kong: Skull Island, the show begins with Anna Sawai as Cate Randa, an American teacher who experienced the chaos of Godzilla’s destruction a year after the events of Godzilla (2014). She heads to Tokyo to look for her father, and discovers that he has led a secret life with Monarch and that she has a half-brother, Kentaro (Ren Watabe). He’s an artist with a single mother and his own daddy issues. With the help of Kentaro’s ex, the American immigrant, May (Kiersey Clemons), the three hunt for clues about the half-siblings’ father and the Monarch agency. Meanwhile, they may be hunted themselves.

Ahead of the show’s massive conclusion, we spoke with Clemons, Sawai, and Watabe about their characters, who they surprisingly relate to on many different levels. Check out the video interview above, or read on:

Kiersey Clemons Questions Integrity
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Release Date November 17, 2023 Seasons 1 ProsA surprisingly mature and emotional series about characters navigating their own monsters. Some excellent action sequences and effects. Great actors across the board. ConsThe show is a little too complicated for its own good and is sometimes confusing.

MovieWeb: Kiersey, what did you like about your character, May, and what was it about her and the show that brought you back to TV?

Kiersey Clemons: I liked that May had a lot of secrets. It made a lot of room for her to grow and have this great character arc in the show. And I haven’t done a series in a really long time, so it was really weird to kind of not know how the movie ends, because it’s a TV show. But May also doesn’t really know where she’s going or where she’s gonna end up, either. I think that applies accurately to a lot of our characters. We’re all really on the hunt to, I think, find our purpose and fulfill our potential. And there’s also a really big theme of some type of integrity struggle that everyone has. But it was a really exciting part to play, and I’m glad that I trusted Chris Black and Matt Fraction and Tory Tunnell and everyone involved.

MW: You mentioned themes of integrity in Monarch. Could you expand on that?

Kiersey Clemons: I think that there are choices that you make that maybe you wouldn’t normally make when you’re in a dire situation, and it’s life or death, and you don’t get to really exist in this gray area. And so I think everyone is put in that position, and we’re all evolving and changing so rapidly because of the circumstance that we’re in. I mean, [Sawai and Watabe’s characters] are learning so much about their lineage and themselves. So, of course integrity will be questioned. They’re questioning their father’s integrity. And I think Lee Shaw is probably reflecting and questioning his integrity. Joe Tippett, who plays Tim, also is, and I just think it’s relevant to everyone in the show.

The Emotional Connections of Monarch’s Cast

MW: So much of this series is about the emotional trauma and journeys of the characters, and I love how the monsters end up reflecting that. Can you tell us about your characters and how you connected to their specific issues?

Anna Sawai: She is a victim of G-Day, and she was abandoned by her dad, and so she’s going through so much. But what interested me the most was that later on, we see that she has to forgive herself for not being able to do the things that she wished she could do. And until she does that, she’s unable to move forward with her dad or the loss of her students. And so that was what really drew me to playing Cate.

RELATED: Kurt Russell and Son Wyatt Discuss Monarch and Swapping Roles

Ren Watabe: Similar to my character, I was reluctant at first because I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. But then I was able to relate to my character because there are analogies between myself and him. An obvious one being that we’re, you know, authentic Japanese people. But also not to get too personal, but I was raised by a single mother, and things like that. I’ve never acted before, but I know what that feels like. So I just go off those experiences.

MW: Wasn’t challenging to go to those emotional places?

Anna Sawai: Surprisingly, it wasn’t difficult, because I had experienced a really big earthquake in 2011. I left home and I had to go away to the Osaka side for about, I think it was close to a month, because the water wasn’t running, and the roads were all messed up. Things like that. And then with my character being abandoned by her dad, it’s also a very personal relationship that I have with my own family. Like, there are issues that I will not be talking about today.

Kiersey Clemons: No, go for it.

Anna Sawai: [laughs] Are we in therapy?

Kiersey Clemons: I’ll show you mine if you show me yours [laughs].

Anna Sawai: Honestly, like just channeling those kinds of personal experiences, it was very easy to be honest.

RELATED: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Couple Anders Holm and Mari Yamamoto Discuss Godzilla

The Siblings at the Center of This Legacy of Monsters

MW: Anna and Ren, since the two of you have such a complicated relationship together as half-siblings in the show, did you ever get into any discussions behind the scenes about how you’d play your scenes together, or was it all on the page?

Anna Sawai: I feel like they have individual experiences, so we didn’t really discuss anything. And on the page we see that it evolved, and they find that they kind of neet each other in the end. We were doing it chronologically, most of it like block shoots, and so our relationship started to evolve, and I was able to trust him as Ren, but also as Kintaro. And so it felt kind of natural.

Ren Watabe: Yeah, it’s just pretty straightforward. Just do what’s on the script. It was really easy because it was comfortable to be with her.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters streams on Apple TV+, with the penultimate episode coming to the platform today, Jan. 5, and the finale airing Jan. 12. The first episode is free to watch. You can find the series through the link below:

Watch on Apple TV+