Monarch: Legacy of Monsters features feature film level special effects to bring its various kaiju to life for each episode. Both Godzilla and Kong look as good as they do on the small screen as much as in any movie, a testament to the VFX workers. But as good as those effects are, they can’t compete with Monarch’s best “special effect,” which is the dual performance of father/son duo Kurt and Wyatt Russell as Col. Lee Shaw, one of the foundational people of the entire Monarch operation. He’s a longtime military veteran who has been deep in the world of the Titans for 70 years.
Monarch takes place in two eras in history, roughly the mid-50s to the early ‘60s. In that time period, Wyatt Russell (Thunderbolts*) plays the younger Lee Shaw. And then we have the 2015-2017 timeframe, where Wyatt’s father, Kurt Russell, plays the same character as an older man. Although not as old a man as he technically should be, thanks to a little time displacement in the ‘80s. But we digress. In both eras, Lee Shaw was at the forefront of Monarch’s efforts to study and understand the many giant Titans.
Kurt Russell’s elder version of Lee Shaw is a little more unhinged, and a lot more sarcastic. He’s seen some truly remarkable stuff in his time on this Earth, and in his old age, he’s learned to have a sardonic sense of humor about it all. The younger Shaw is more earnest, someone shaped by his military service. He’s not as jaded, even though we can see the origins of some of that attitude forming in Monarch season two. Yet both performances truly feel like the same man, simply at different stages of life. And that’s not easy to pull off.
As father and son, Wyatt and Kurt bear an uncanny resemblance to each other. And not only does Wyatt look like the spitting image of dear old dad, but he sounds just like him too. Watching Monarch, you never once question that both men are meant to be the same person. Other shows like Supernatural have flirted with the same casting convention. But none have ever done it as successfully as Monarch has with the Russells. Probably because as real-life father and son, they can truly hash out exactly what their characters’ motivations and personality traits are. Not to mention how Shaw would (or would not) change over the decades.
When first announced, the father/son casting seemed like it could just be a gimmick. And it might have been only that if we were dealing with lesser actors. But Kurt Russell is delivering his best “cranky old man we can’t help but love” performance in ages as the elder Shaw. Wyatt, who truly shined in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as John Walker, proved that he’s more than another nepo baby actor. His work in the MCU as well as in Monarch has shown off his skills enough that he’s working with Steven Spielberg now in the upcoming U.F.O. film, Disclosure Day.
Wyatt Russell will star in his own spin-off series of Monarch, taking place entirely in the past. That means he’ll get to show off his craft without the “gimmick” of sharing the character with his dad. But undeniably, the magic of both Wyatt and Kurt giving life to the same character is something we’ll miss. Luckily, we still have Monarch: Legacy of Monsters to give us both Russells together. Who knows? Maybe one day, both characters actually share a scene together. The X-Men franchise did it for the young and old versions of Charles Xavier in Days of Future Past. With all the time displacement in realms like Axis Mundi, anything is possible.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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