The brand-new Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 trailer and official reports from the series revealed where exactly the show's sophomore run fits in the MonsterVerse timeline. Apple TV+'s MonsterVerse spinoff has a unique storytelling approach because it tells two stories that are set in the past and the present day. This is actually consistent with MonsterVerse's non-linear approach to storytelling during its early batch of projects, as it jumps between ancient history, mid-20th-century events, and the modern era.
While the world of Godzilla and Kong is poised to expand with the arrival of another project in 2027 (Godzilla x Kong: Supernova), details about its timeline placement are still being kept under wraps. Despite that, the MonsterVerse returns to the screen in 2026 with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 (which premiered on Apple TV+ on February 27), and it will provide more context about the history of Titans on Earth.
The MonsterVerse's Updated Timeline, Explained
Kong: Skull Island
Year: 1973
The events of Kong: Skull Island are set in 1973, toward the end of the Vietnam War era. It revolves around a high-profile expedition to the newly discovered Skull Island as they attempt to uncover new resources and secretly prove Bill Randa's Hollow Earth theory.
In the MonsterVerse chronological timeline, it slots in right after the ancient Titan history, and this is one of the earliest encounters of people outside of Monarch with Kong and other monstrous creatures native to the mysterious island.
Skull Island
Year: 1993
Netflix's animated Skull Island series which serves as a direct follow-up to Kong: Skull Island and a standalone story. Set in 1993, a group of explorers embarks on a rescue mission to save a young girl stranded in the middle of the ocean, but a storm causes their ship to crash on Skull Island.
As expected, the group encountered Kong and other monstrous creatures, including a dangerous new Squid Titan that was never introduced in the movies or the Monarch TV show.
Godzilla
Year: 2014
Godzilla's major event includes the public emergence of the titular Titan to the rest of the world as the creature protects humanity from the MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) in several locations, namely San Francisco, Hawaii, and Las Vegas. This event is later known to MonsterVerse lore as "G-Day."
The movie positioned Godzilla as humanity's reluctant savior, a role he carried in the next wave of movies. Godzilla is also crucial to the MonsterVerse timeline because it changed everything in the franchise due to the shift from secret Monarch cover-ups to open knowledge that these Titans exist in the world.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 1
Year/s: After 2014 & 1940s - 1950s during flashbacks
In an exclusive interview with The Direct in November 2023, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 1 executive producer Matt Fraction confirmed that the show takes place sometime after 2014, meaning that it happens after the events of G-Day and right before the events of Godzilla: King of Monsters:
"Our [show] takes place after 2014. We were even sort of existing chronologically before 'King of the Monsters'. So that's, we're sort of doing more to set that up, in this story of Monarch coming to the global [forefront] for the first time."
This means that the Apple TV+ spinoff is a prequel that lays the groundwork for the eventual crossover between Godzilla and Kong in the future timeline.
Monarch is a significant part of the MonsterVerse timeline because it explains why Godzilla was absent from Earth for several years before the events of King of the Monsters. As it turns out, Godzilla was fighting the Ion Dragon in the Axis Mundi, an in-between dimension where time moves differently.
While Godzilla and the other Monarch characters are only in the Axis Mundi for hours, the Season 1 finale revealed that they were gone for two years, and they emerged in the modern timeline in 2017, two years before the events of 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, after being saved by Apex Cybernetics.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2
Year: 2017 & 1957 (flashbacks)
The Season 1 finale of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (which featured Kong's surprise appearance) and the official Season 2 trailer confirmed that the events of the show's sophomore run happen immediately after last season's cliffhanger, meaning that it is still set in 2017 (before the events of Godzilla: King of the Monsters).
As reported by the new issue of SFX Magazine, the parallel flashbacks in Season 2 take place in 1957 as it chronicles Keiko, Bill, and Lee's encounter with another mysterious Titan in their research trip to South America.
Given that the events of Season 1 occur in a span of several weeks in the modern timeline, it's possible that Season 2 would also happen within that span, meaning that it will all take place in 2017 (unless there is a last-minute Axis Mundi twist like in Season 1).
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Year: 2019
Godzilla: King of the Monsters is set in 2019, five years after the pivotal events of G-Day. The movie highlighted another crucial event in MonsterVerse history as it features the awakening of multiple Titans, namely Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah, and the highly anticipated rematch between Ghidorah and Godzilla.
King of the Monsters' ending showed Godzilla reclaiming his alpha status after defeating Ghidorah, making him the king of all Titans on Earth.
Godzilla vs. Kong
Year: 2024
Godzilla vs. Kong jumped five years into the future after the movie's events confirmed that it is set in 2024.
The movie showed Godzilla going berserk after the Alpha Titan became aware of Apex Cybernetics' experimentation with Ghidorah's remains and Hollow Earth energy to create Mechagodzilla. As a result, Monarch used Kong as a means to control (and potentially defeat) Godzilla to prevent further harm.
This event marks the first time that Godzilla and Kong engage in battle in the MonsterVerse before eventually teaming up to defeat Mechagodzilla and save the world.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Year: 2027
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire takes place in 2027 in-universe, as evidenced by the Titan Watch 2027 reference throughout the film. Following the game-changing team-up between Godzilla and Kong in 2024, the pair of Titans agreed not to harm each other as long as Kong remains on Skull Island.
However, Kong's exploration of the Hollow Earth led him to uncover a tyrannical ape known as Skar King and his enslaved Titan Shimo, ruling over the dimension. Seeing that remnants of his ancient civilization are being enslaved, Kong decides to ask Godzilla for help. After a minor clash between the two former rivals, they eventually team up to prevent Skar King's invasion of Earth.
The New Empire marks a major shift in the alliance between Godzilla and Kong because the movie establishes that they now have mutual respect with one another, and this is expected to carry over in the upcoming Godzilla x Kong: Supernova.
