EXCLUSIVE: Mari Yamamoto (Pachinko, Kate) has joined the cast of its upcoming Apple Original live-action monster series, a Legendary Television production based on Legendary’s Monsterverse franchise. Details regarding the character she will portray are under wraps.
Yamamoto will star alongside previously announced series regulars Anna Sawai, Ren Watabe, Kiersey Clemons, Joe Tippett, Elisa Lasowski, Kurt Russell, and Wyatt Russell.
Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking new reality that monsters are real, the untitled series will explore one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to the secret organization known as Monarch.
Emmy Award-nominated director Matthew Shakman will direct the first two episodes and serve as executive producer on the untitled series, which is produced for Apple TV+ by Legendary Television and executive produced by co-creators Chris Black, who serves as showrunner, and Matt Fraction.
The series is also executive produced by Safehouse Pictures’ Tory Tunnell and Joby Harold. Executive producing for Toho Co. Ltd. is Hiro Matsuoka and Takemasa Arita. Toho is the owner of Godzilla and other classic characters and has licensed the rights to Legendary for this series as a natural byproduct of their long-term relationship on the film franchise.
Legendary’s Monsterverse is an expansive story universe of multi-layered experiences centering around humanity’s battle to survive in a world that is under siege by a catastrophic new reality—the monsters of our myths and legends are real. Beginning in 2014 with Godzilla and continuing with 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, Monsterverse films have accumulated close to two billion dollars globally at the box office and is ever expanding with the latest iteration being a new anime series, Skull Island.
Yamamoto is repped by AFA Prime Talent Media, KP Talent Management in the UK, and law firm Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich & Gellman.
