Anna Sawai Talks Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Return, Shōgun Season 2 and Playing Yoko Ono

[This story contains spoilers from Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two’s second episode, “Resonance.”]

A lot has changed for Anna Sawai since the first season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. She’s now Emmy winner Anna Sawai, and her career continues to soar on the heels of her performance for the ages in Shōgun season one.

Her prolific awards season run in 2024 coincided with the filming of Monarch season two, and having that support system around her proved to be rather comforting during such an overwhelming time. She has added several buzzy films to her filmography in the time since, but she doesn’t sense much of a change internally. “I don’t know if [life] is that different. The first time we talked was for Monarch season one, and I still feel like myself from back then,” Sawai tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Apple TV and Legendary’s Monsterverse spinoff series, which returned Feb. 27.

One of those aforementioned film projects is Sam Mendes’ The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, an ambitious four-part series that chronicles each member of the beloved English rock band. Sawai plays Yoko Ono, the long-term partner of John Lennon (played by Harris Dickinson).

“It’s just surreal to tell [Yoko Ono’s] story because it is something that I’ve wanted to tell for a long time. Seeing all the actors come together and become The Beatles on a set that is not from this time is so so cool,” Sawai shares.

As for the show that launched her into the stratosphere, Sawai admits that she misses her Shōgun collaborators now that they are off and running on a second season. When she concluded her tragic arc as Toda Mariko, the Emmy-winning FX series was still a limited series. However, she still wouldn’t change a thing if it meant being a part of season two.

“I just received a text from [Shōgun director] Hiromi Kamata. She sent me a photo, and it was a poster of Mariko by the window. And she was like, ‘We miss you,’” Sawai says. “I do miss the whole team a lot because it was such a meaningful show to me. But my character’s arc finished in the best way, and now people miss me. So, in that sense, it couldn’t be better.”

Could Mariko briefly appear in season two via flashback or some other narrative device? “That would be fun,” Sawai says mid-laugh. “It would be a surprise. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m also very excited to see season two.”

Below, during a conversation with THR, Sawai also discusses her Monarch character’s headspace now that she’s accidentally unleashed season two’s tentacled Titan threat, as well as what to expect from the rest of season two. Then she previews two more of her upcoming films, including A24’s Enemies opposite Austin Butler and Jeremy Allen White, and the Nicholas Hoult-led How to Rob a Bank.

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I hope you have a box of Kleenex nearby.

(Laughs.) I remember you. We do have some here, but I don’t think I’ll need any.

A lot has changed since I first spoke to you at the Monarch season one junket. You went on this storybook run with Shōgun and won all the awards. Did it take a while to come back down to Earth after such a surreal time period?

I knew that it was going to go by very quickly. I knew that a lot was going to happen before things would calm down, so I wasn’t getting myself too excited about everything. I was just going to each event, doing all the interviews and trying to keep myself grounded. So I don’t know if [life] is that different. The first time we talked was for Monarch season one, and I still feel like myself from back then.

You were doing awards-related activities while filming Monarch season two, so was it a juggling act to learn lines and write speeches at the same time?

I never actually wrote any speeches. There was an idea of, “Okay, if I do go up there, maybe I would want to thank these people,” but I never wrote anything because I didn’t want to get myself too excited about it. I was really nervous. It was the first time I was experiencing any kind of award. But going back and forth between shooting [Monarch season two] and attending events was just nice. It was nice to experience those big events and then come back to a family-like cast and crew where I could just be me.

You’d been so engrossed in the release of Shōgun by the time you returned to Monarch season two. Did it take you a minute to find Cate Randa again?

We spent six or seven months filming season one, so I found it easy to go back to her. I looked through all the notes that I had written, and then I added to them. So playing Cate now was a little bit more familiar than it was in the first season.

Cate has a lot of scenes this season with her grandmother, Keiko, who missed out on nearly 60 years of her own life while stuck inside Axis Mundi for just 57 days. How bizarre was it for you and Mari Yamamoto to play that dynamic when your real-life ages obviously don’t align with a grandmother-granddaughter dynamic? Did you joke about how unusual it is?

(Laughs.) Yeah, it doesn’t happen often. We were like, “Oh my God, we’re sharing scenes now.” I respect Mari so much. She’s such a beautiful actor, and all of the scenes that we shared were so vulnerable and genuine. So it was strange to think about it, but it became very natural when it came to acting it out.

I don’t think Cate looks at Keiko, thinking, “Oh, it’s my grandma. She should be older.” It’s more like having this almost mother figure/role model that she really looks up to. Keiko has the courage that she doesn’t, and she has this passion for these monsters —the same monsters Cate has [previously] been afraid of. So it is surreal to think of Keiko as her grandmother, but she’s more like a best friend who she really respects and wants to be like. So to be able to team up with her role model is deeply inspiring for Cate.

Cate had a lot of trauma to deal with in season one, and she’s only added to it in season two after organizing a rescue party for Kurt Russell’s Lee Shaw.

She holds a lot of guilt from G-Day. When she finally meets Shaw, she feels that he is the first man in her life to show up and keep his word. Her father [Takehiro Hira’s Hiroshi] was never that for her. So she has another layer of guilt when Shaw tries to save her [at the end of season one], and she pulls him down [to Axis Mundi again] because she’s trying to hold onto him. So that turns into motivation to go back and find him in Axis Mundi [after he seemingly sacrificed himself in the season one finale]. She finally finds this purpose to try and do something instead of always running away, so that was really exciting to explore.

She successfully helps rescue Shaw, but the effort accidentally unleashes Titan X on Earth. I’ve seen it written elsewhere, so I think it’s safe to say that this is the beginning of a very unique story between human and monster.

Yeah, she’s trying to figure out what Titan X is and what she can do now that she has unleashed this Titan. It’s not easy. No one understands it, and she’s going off of a gut feeling. After season one, we definitely see that she starts to feel a different way toward these monsters. Other people may villainize these monsters, but she starts to care for them now. So we’ll get to explore more of that this season.

I really feel for Cate’s mom in San Francisco. First, her husband disappears and is presumed dead. Then she finds out he led a double life with another nuclear family in Japan. And then Cate disappears for two years without a trace.

It’s a lot for Cate’s mother, yes. It’s still a lot for Cate, too. On top of finding out that her dad had another family, she’s now having to deal with the fact that her new brother [Ren Watabe’s Kentaro] got two more years with him while she was down in Axis Mundi. So it’s very complicated. She can’t bring it up to either Kentaro or her father because it just feels like the connection is almost lost. So she has to rely on Keiko because she understands the feeling of having lost time and is also asking the question of, “What do we do now with what’s in front of us?”

The Randas are such heartbreakers. All of them are caught up in these complicated romantic entanglements. Cate didn’t know her father had a double life when she led a double life. Hiroshi also doesn’t know that his mother had feelings for Bill Randa (Anders Holm) and Lee (Wyatt Russell) in the ‘50s. Perhaps Kentaro has his own drama this year. What do you make of this familial pattern?

(Laughs.) It’s complicated. It’s about being human and sometimes making the wrong decisions. But when you do make a certain decision, you’re going to affect your family and other relationships that you have. So this season, we really get to learn that there are consequences when you make these choices.

To explain the earlier Kleenex reference, I was the first journalist to ask you about Shōgun and subsequently make you cry about Shōgun. When you wrapped that series, you thought you were wrapping a limited series, but it is now an ongoing series. Do you feel any FOMO now that your friends are underway on season two?

I just received a text from Hiromi Kamata. She directed on Shōgun season one and Monarch season one/two. She sent me a photo, and it was a poster of Mariko by the window. And she was like, “We miss you.” So, yeah, I do miss the whole team a lot because it was such a meaningful show to me. But my character’s arc finished in the best way, and now people miss me. So, in that sense, it couldn’t be better.

I have no intel, but I bet we’ll see Mariko again in some way, shape or form. If Fast X can find a way to show your picture on screen, then I have faith in Shōgun’s storytellers.

(Laughs.) Yeah, that would be fun. It would be a surprise. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m also very excited to see season two.

I may have been the very first journalist to ask you about Shōgun, but I am certainly not the first person to ask you about The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event. I’m assuming each film will play with perspective like Monarch did with G-Day from 2014’s Godzilla, but how would you describe the experience filming so far?

There’s so much that I can’t talk about, but it’s just surreal to tell [Yoko Ono’s] story because it is something that I’ve wanted to tell for a long time. Seeing all the actors come together and become The Beatles on a set that is not from this time, it’s so cool. I’m seeing [fictional versions of] everyone that I’ve been watching in documentaries and videos, and it really feels like I’m experiencing it in real life. So the energy is great, and the people on it are just so talented. I have a very good feeling about it.

You also shot a David Leitch action movie with Nicholas Hoult. Were you pretty amazed that Nick filmed How to Rob a Bank on one leg? [Writer’s Note: Hoult tore his ACL playing basketball, but he put off its repair to promote Superman and star in Leitch’s upcoming film.]

I was really amazed and so worried, but he did a fantastic job. He was rolling around and doing a lot of the stunts and driving around. He didn’t show it at all, but I know that he had surgery [afterwards in October 2025]. He’s just a fantastic actor and a great person. So I’m not surprised that he was able to do it because he’s Nick Hoult.

You’ve also got a cool A24 movie on your résumé now. Every actor wants one of those.

I know.

How was Enemies with Austin Butler and Jeremy Allen White?

Enemies was great. It’s unlike any film that I’ve been on, and it’s very, very, very cinematic. It just looked so amazing, and the energy was so mysterious. It’s so special. I don’t know how much is out there, so I can’t really speak too much about it. I’m sorry, again. But it’s something that is probably going to look very different from what we’ve been seeing now in 2026.

Let’s close on Monarch. Years from now, when you reflect on filming season two, what day will you likely recall first?

Oh my gosh, there’s a very special scene that we have. It’s an emotionally heavy scene in episode five or six, and I just remember the cast coming together to do multiple rehearsals. We were all surprised when we read it, but I think it turned out beautifully. Jeff King, who directed the episode, is such a fantastic director. He was so sensitive to the energy, so it was a great set. I can’t speak too much about it yet, but I’m really excited for people to see it.

Well, I’m glad I didn’t make you cry for the third time.

You were close on that last question. I get emotional easily. I need to solve it.

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is currently streaming new episodes every Friday on Apple TV.