You'd think WandaVision director Matt Shakman would have enough on his hands making the Fantastic Four reboot, but apparently not: he's also putting the finishing touches to a brand new Apple TV+ adventure in the MonsterVerse.
Godzilla and the Titans (which may not be the final title) has already got monster fans in a frenzy, with the promise of monsters old and new. As Apple puts it: "Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking new reality that monsters are real, the series explores one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch."
According to Shakman it's been a hoot to make. Speaking to Comicbook.com, he said that "just the chance to film scenes where there are hundreds of people running down the street trying to escape from Godzilla. I mean, that's definitely got to check that off the bucket list. That's pretty awesome. So it was fun and, you know, we were creating a lot of cool Titans and monsters, some new, some old. So it's fun. I'm excited."
Confirmed cast members so far include Wyatt and Kurt Russell, Kiersey Clemons, Anna Sawai, Ren Watabe and Mari Yamamoto.
When is the release date for Godzilla and the Titans?
We don't know: so far Apple has only confirmed that it's buying the show for a 2023 release, without saying even what half of 2023 it's thinking of. But the buzz is definitely building already, not least because the MonsterVerse is already a big hit.
If you're not familiar with the MonsterVerse, it's based on a cool concept: the monsters in our myths and our legends are real, and they're not big fans of humans. The first in the MonsterVerse was 2014's Godzilla, with 2017's Kong: Skull Island, 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters and 2021's Godzilla vs Kong collectively bringing in more than 2 billion dollars at the box office.
It's going to be interesting to see how the MonsterVerse translates from big-screen blockbusters to a smaller-screen series, but given Apple's track record with its originals so far I can't imagine the show runners will be short of cash for the all-important visual effects.
In the meantime, there are plenty of MonsterVerse movies to get your teeth into. As far as I can tell they're not included in any of the main streaming subscriptions, but you can rent or buy them from the usual digital outlets.
