Emperor: Legacy of Demons Season 2 featured a mix of complex family drama and mad science alongside the MonsterVerse’s biggest stars – King Kong and Godzilla. But the real reason to watch was Titan
Titan Like Godzilla, he is equally comfortable on land or sea. Unlike Godzilla, who typically represents death and chaos, he is revered as a divine figure throughout the Earth, where his migratory path is said to bring the bounty of the sea. Titan
Ahead of KingIn the season 2 finale, Polygon met with the show’s VFX supervisor Sean Conrad to discuss the MonsterVerse’s coolest new creature. Konrad tells Polygon that the design of the Titan X was inspired by nature aliens.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the blue bottle jellyfish,” says Conrad, referring to the species, which is also known as the Portuguese man-of-war and is recognizable by its single long blue tentacle. “They’re not actually jellyfish, they’re weird colony creatures. We took that spine as inspiration, and then some dangerous pieces. Then we started figuring out how to move this thing. We knew we had to give it more vital organs, so we gave it squid-based organs.”
With the jellyfish as the main inspiration, Konrad’s team went through several iterations where Titan X had no face. Eventually they decided the monster needed one so the audience could connect with him.
“We took the moray eel as the base and then made it as scary as possible by giving it crocodile teeth,” says Conrad. “In the Alien franchise, there’s this vertical crown associated with the alien queen, so Titan
To simulate the colony aspect of the blue bottle jellyfish, Titan X is accompanied by a swarm of horseshoe crab-like creatures called scarabs. Titan This creates a “big guy, little guy dynamic”, which Conrad compares to the insects flying around Megaguirus in the 2000 Toho film. Godzilla vs Megaguirus Or centipedes that surround Rodan In the 1956 film of the same name.
[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 2]
Titan X is both this season’s biggest threat and biggest prey. Shaw is soon awakened from hibernation when Kate Randa (Anna Sawai) rescues him axis mundiTitan X is chased from Skull Island by Kong. She tries to make her way to Santa Soledad via her regular migratory route, where she has been worshiped as a god for generations. But instead of a respectful welcome, he is attacked top Operators, who try to control his mind. The attack disoriented Titan X, so she became lost and washed ashore in Australia to lay her eggs, where Godzilla chased her away.
“I’m very happy to see the fan community realizing that Godzilla is having a little shock out there,” says Conrad, “but of course Godzilla doesn’t know the full context of what’s going on.”
Emperor: Legacy of Demons Takes place between the events of Gareth Edwards’s 2014 film Godzilla and Michael Dougherty’s 2019 follow-up Godzilla: King of the MonstersSo a new creature allows the show to overcome the midquel hurdles.
“We’re often trying to find ways to give the fight some kind of outcome, even if the outcome for our hero Titans is known,” says Conrad. “In terms of the Godzilla fight, it’s a lot about the eggs.”
While Titan X and Godzilla are fighting, the egg is stolen as part of a plan to open a portal to Axis Mundi and get Titan X to kill Kong. The Ape King was beaten by Godzilla in Adam Wingard’s 2021 film godzilla vs kong and is seriously injured by Shimo in the 2024 sequel Wingard Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. This battle continues Kong’s role as the MonsterVerse’s Biggest Loser.
“It’s a classic, one of the great boxing movies,” says Conrad. “The best parts of rocky are when [Sylvester] Stallone is making him fuck.”
Fortunately, things turn out well for Titan X through the combined efforts of the human heroes, who disable the neural implants that make him aggressive. Titan X returns to Axis Mundi with his egg, leaving behind a very bloody and battered Kong. The fight, and its happy outcome, proves to be a big bonding moment for Kate and her grandmother, Monarch founder Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto). It’s a perfect premise for a show about a family trying to understand monsters.
“Kate and Keiko trying to help Titan “We’re a TV series and our human characters will always get a lot of screen time. The audience needs to identify with them, and the stories need to be based around them, so we always try to give them something to do inside these big monster fights.”