WandaVision was the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first proper foray into streaming, opening up the franchise to a whole new world of formats. Similarly, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters expands the Monsterverse into the world of streaming, bringing the live-action setting to the streaming world via Apple TV+.
Matt Shakman, who directed 9 episodes of WandaVision and 2 episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss how his experience with the two IPs has been similar and how they share a major plot point in their stories.
WandaVision and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters are all about trauma and how to survive it
Matt Shakman had quite the revelation when talking to The Hollywood Reporter, recognizing the patterns that he had inadvertently repeated in directing for MonsterVerse and the MCU. When asked about it, the director said:
“That’s a very interesting perspective. I had not thought about it that way before. When you started the question, I chuckled because the two shows, to me, are so different. “
Matt Shakman found it amusing that the interviewer would make such a comparison between the two shows, however, he was able to see that both shows were thematically united. While one was about a sorceress getting over her android lover’s death, the other was about the consequences of 300 meters+ tall lizard invading the United States of America. However, the shows are this, and beyond those ideas too, Shackman said:
“One of the things that I loved most about WandaVision was that it was this story of grief that asked, “Can you ever truly get over a loss?” And [Monarch: Legacy of Monsters], created beautifully by Matt Fraction and Chris Black, is similar in its thematics.”
Given that Shakman has now brought two major franchises to the small screen, the director also reflected on what television can do in contrast to cinema.
Television keeps you coming back week after week, says Matt Shackman
Talking about how Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and WandaVision worked because they were television series, Shakman opened up about what he felt about the television format. He said:
” And it works for television, because that’s what television is. You want to fall in love with characters, you want to root for them, you want to be invested in their journeys, so you come back week to week. And then you get to also see the spectacle and all of the wonderful things of the MonsterVerse, but you’re going to be pulled through not by Godzilla’s journey, but by the journey of the human characters down below.”
When we compare television to cinema, the experience is indeed quite different. A Godzilla film cannot be about the humans who are scared when Godzilla is the hero of the story. However, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters can pick up the pieces that are left in the behemoth’s wake to explore how humans react to the issue at hand (in the case of the Monarch, it’s a 300-meter-tall lizard).
Similarly, Avengers: Age of Ultron can be about the megalomaniac robot trying to tear down a civilization, but WandaVision is where the loss of a loved one can be explored with an in-depth understanding of grief, trauma, and love.
Also Read: “A monster and a god”: 5 Ways in Which WB’s Godzilla is Vastly Different Than Toho’s Godzilla
