Kurt Russell and Son Wyatt Russell on Playing Same Character in New Godzilla Series: 'Let's Make This Good'

Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt Russell are opening up about teaming up to play the same character in the new Apple TV+ series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.

"We were being given this opportunity to play the same person, as opposed to the father and son, so we started hammering away at it and saying, 'Let's make this good!' " Kurt, 72, recently told Entertainment Tonight during a sit-down interview with Wyatt, 37.

The new series is based on Legendary Television’s MonsterVerse, most recently explored in 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters "tracks two siblings following in their father’s footsteps to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch," sometime after the events of 2014's Godzilla, according to an official synopsis. In the show, both Kurt and Wyatt play an Army officer named Lee Shaw across two different timelines.

"I think I was probably, I don't know, maybe 8 years old or something when I first saw Godzilla, and that was an image I never forgot," Kurt shared of his interest in the long-running Godzilla franchise. "What I love about sci-fi is [with] great sci-fi there's an opportunity to examine some questions - huge questions. Where are we from? What's it all about? What's going on here?"

"For me, it was a wonderful opportunity to get to work with Wyatt," he added.

Wyatt, who portrays Lee Shaw as a young man in the 1950s, shared his opinion that a father-son duo sharing the same role across different ages makes a more rewarding experience than if they played father-son characters.

"[Playing] father and son is like low-hanging fruit," he told the outlet. "And we've never been people, genetically, who have gone for low-hanging fruit. It's just never been interesting [for me], it's never been interesting in his career."

Kurt, who shares Wyatt with his partner Goldie Hawn, spoke about how he observed Wyatt's work with the character earlier in the series' chronology to better inform his own performance when portraying Lee as an older man.

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"I suddenly found myself saying 'God, Wyatt's going to create this character. I'm going to play him later on in life, so it's all gotta make sense,' " Kurt told ET. "And I suddenly realized, I've watched him all my life, but I've never examined him."

"I started watching him just as an actor, observing him like we do in life. That was really interesting - I started seeing things about him that I [see in myself]," he added. "Without getting cartoonish about it, we just tried to both walk this fine line of saying 'This is the same guy, it's not father and son.' "

After the new MonsterVerse series finishes airing, the franchise will expand further with the upcoming film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, expected to be released in theaters on April 12, 2024.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is streaming on Apple TV+ now.