Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has returned for Season 2 on Apple TV, with a story that goes deeper emotionally, while never losing its thrills. The series stars Kurt Russell, Anna Sawai, Mari Yamamoto, Anders Holm, Wyatt Russell, Ren Watabe, Kiersey Clemons and Takehiro Hira, and continues to jump between the 1950s and 2010s, after Cate (Sawai), May (Clemons) and Dr. Keiko Miura (Yamamoto) have been rescued from the Axis Mundi.

“I think I’m the luckiest one in the cast, because I actually get to work with everybody,” Yamamoto told Yahoo Canada. “At the end of [Season 1], I realized I hadn’t spoken to a woman on screen the entire time. … But going into Season 2, it was so exciting to get to work with the modern-day cast, and deepening the relationship with the kids, and the grandkids. So that was a really exciting part for me.”

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Anders Holm had to dig deeper into his ’emo bag’ as Bill Randa

But as impressive as the production design is in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, particularly in Season 2, and the visuals of these monsters, including the new Titan X, there’s a much stronger emotional core as well.

“There’s an extra emotional weight with the story and how it unfurls this season,” Holm said. “So I kind of had to dig a little deeper in my emo bag.”

For Holm, we see Bill Randa as an incredibly devoted and inquisitive researcher, but we also see the impact of his devotion to his work on his relationship with Keiko and her young son, Hiroshi.

As Holm shared, that element of the story really resonated for him.

“It’s real. As an actor who has a family, you have to be like, hey, this job I do that I love, I’m going to go across the world and go do that, and you guys can come with me, or not come with me,” Holm said. “So as someone who is constantly chasing his passion … and balancing my marriage and my boys, it’s easy for me to be like, oh, I’ve been here. I know what this is, when you want to keep building a relationship with somebody, but at the same time, you’ve got this calling.”

“I hate that I just said acting is my calling, but … it’s relatable. And I think that there are a lot of people out there who have passions in life, and it can sometimes get in the way of relationships, and it can end them, it can strengthen them, but it can also just kind of muddy the waters a lot of times, and it makes you kind of get down to what you really care about foundationally.”

Wyatt Russell and Mari Yamamoto in “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” now streaming on Apple TV.

Mari Yamamoto: ‘She is really adamant about creating the life that she wants’

There’s one scene in particular that’s a beautifully intimate and meaningful moment in Episode 2, when Keiko tells Lee (Wyatt Russell) about her relationship with Hiroshi’s father, and how it differed from her relationship with Bill.

Keiko shares that their parents arranged the marriage, but he was a doctor, a “good man,” and a “good husband.” He died right after Hiroshi was born, from cancer, but he was a provider and a protector.

“The only thing that he could never seem to understand was that it just wasn’t enough,” she says to Lee. “Billy will drive you mad and drag you to the bottom of the world and suddenly lose interest, but the only thing that he cares about more than Monarch is me and you, and that I can be my own person, no matter the circumstances.”

“That was a really beautiful scene. And I was talking to the writers about her ex-husband, I was reading about post-war Nagasaki, and read about this doctor, and I was like, I feel like she was married to him,” Yamamoto shared. “So it was a product of that conversation. … And we never really talked about her past in Season 1, so it was really nice to be able to flesh it out a little bit.”

“I think that explains really a lot about where she comes from, the fact that she’s lost so many things and people, and she’s grieving that, but at the same time, because of that, she is really adamant about creating the life that she wants, that she thinks the people that she lost would want for her as well. It sounds so flippant, but to live her best life in the truest sense of the word. And she’s found these people, Billy and Lee, who helped her do that. And it’s heartbreaking, but also beautiful in so many ways.”

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – FEBRERO 19: (De izquierda a derecha) Kurt Russell, Anna Sawai y Anders Holm asisten a la premiere de la segunda temporada de la serie de Apple TV “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” en el TCL Chinese Theatre el 19 de febrero de 2026 en Hollywood, California. La segunda temporada se estrena globalmente en Apple TV el viernes 27 de febrero de 2026. (Foto de Eric Charbonneau/Apple TV vía Getty Images)

(Eric Charbonneau vía Getty Images)

De la comedia al drama, Anders Holm puede hacerlo todo

Dado que muchos momentos emocionales componen Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Holm siempre tiene el tiempo y la entrega perfectos para un momento más ligero. Es un experto en un pequeño chiste o comentario que hace que el programa se sienta mucho más satisfactorio, al mismo tiempo que realmente captura los momentos más profundos de su personaje.

“Si puedo hacer que una línea suene un poco más divertida, genial, cuando creo que funciona, o cuando el director y los guionistas piensan que funciona”, dijo. “Pero si no, también fue divertido ser como, eh, de hecho, esta escena no se trata de ser graciosa. Esta escena se trata de conectar, o de enamorarse, o de perder el amor de tu vida. Eso también fue un músculo interesante para ejercitar, y algo nuevo para explorar en la actuación.”

“I’m playing a younger version of John Goodman. John Goodman in Skull Island is kind of spiralling. He’s a man who’s now on a downward path. And to me, I was like, well, he couldn’t have started out this way. He had to have been passionate and excited, and somebody who just had to be told to sit down. John Goodman and I aren’t the same person, … and I want to lean into my qualities for this role so that it feels true to who I am. And the writers just did a good job of really setting up that transition in Season 2.”