Apple‘s streaming service is doubling down on one of the biggest franchises in movie monster history. This week, Apple TV+ announced a sweeping expansion of its Monsterverse offerings, renewing the critically acclaimed series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters for a second season and signing a new deal with Legendary Entertainment to produce multiple new spinoff series set in the iconic Godzilla universe.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which debuted in November 2023 to widespread praise from critics and audiences alike, will be returning for its second season on the streamer. The series, a co-creation of showrunners Chris Black (Severance) and Matt Fraction (Hawkeye), explores the secretive organization Monarch as they confront the existence of massive, supernatural creatures and attempt to prevent a potential war between humans and Titans.

While specific plot details are being kept under wraps, Black and Fraction are confirmed to be returning as showrunners and head writers for Season 2. The series’ first season boasted an incredible ensemble cast including Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Wyatt and Kurt Russell, and Mari Yamamoto.

Even more exciting for kaiju fans is Apple’s new expansive deal with Legendary Entertainment to develop multiple new original series further exploring the Monsterverse – the shared cinematic universe home to the iconic Godzilla and King Kong franchises in their rebooted forms over the past decade.

While character and concept details are still tightly under wraps, the deal gives Apple the ability to draw from Legendary’s full well of classic movie monster IP to craft new stories and corners of this massive universe to bring to the small screen. Fans can likely expect to see both new and returning fan-favorite beasts in these future projects.

The new slate of shows will reunite Apple with Legendary, with whom they collaborated on the blockbuster hit film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which premiered in theaters just a few weeks ago on March 25th to massive box office returns and solid reviews, especially for its breathtaking visual effects.

Apple’s monster commitment comes at an opportune time, as the Monsterverse franchise as a whole is riding a massive wave of success and cultural relevance not seen since the original 1954 Godzilla film kickstarted the entire kaiju genre. That wave began with Legendary’s 2014 reboot Godzilla, continued through 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and truly peaked with the crossover epic Godzilla vs. Kong in 2021.

Unlike previous American attempts to revive the classic Japanese property, Legendary’s MonsterVerse films were praised for taking the franchise deadly serious while still delivering on over-the-top action spectacle, brilliant visual effects, and a surprising amount of character development amidst the city-leveling chaos.

With audience appetite for these iconic movie monsters higher than ever before, and fan discourse entering a fever pitch of speculation over where the franchise could go next, Apple has smartly seized the opportunity to become the premier home for all-new Monsterverse stories in the streaming age.

Of course, many questions remain unanswered about the future of Monarch and Apple’s other coming kaiju offerings – namely, which classic monsters will be featured, what the overall storylines will focus on, and when we can expect the first of these new shows to stomp its way onto our screens.

But one thing is clear: When it comes to bringing the biggest and baddest Titans in cinema to the streaming world in a daring and ambitious way, Apple is taking the magnitude of this challenge head-on. Other streamers better watch their backs, lest they get stepped on by Apple’s new crop of gargantuan, city-smashing hit series.

The second season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters will premiere on Apple TV+ at a date still to be announced, with more new Monsterverse shows to follow in its thunderous footsteps. Viewers would be wise to start bracing for impact now.