The Apple TV+ series “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” is Hollywood’s latest offering of the classic Godzilla monster story. But did you know the series has ties to Hawaiʻi? A few scenes in season one were filmed on Oʻahu in 2022.
Not only that, the show also stars Japanese actor and Hawaiʻi resident Takehiro Hira. He plays Hiroshi Randa, a scientist who leaves his family behind to pursue Godzilla.
Hira also has acting credits in the 2025 comedy drama “Rental Family,” and he was nominated for an Emmy award for his performance as Lord Ishido in the “Shōgun” series.
Hira joined HPR to talk more about his career and his time living in Hawaiʻi.
Interview Highlights
On his path to becoming an actor
HIRA: Both of my parents were actors, and so I was really against the idea of me becoming an actor myself. And actually my parents, especially my mother who raised me after a divorce, because it's a hard profession, it's a difficult career. Now I understand, but back then, I didn't. They were trying to keep me away from the industry as much as possible. So I stayed away until age 27, something like that. And then I asked myself, you know, what do I really want to do with my life? And immediately the answer was acting. Just for once, you know, so that I can say to myself, I tried. Otherwise I thought I would regret it when I died.
On his international success
HIRA: It's hard to believe. I never thought that I would work outside of Japan like this, let alone live in Hawaiʻi. So when I made a transition to Hawaiʻi, immediately after we moved here, COVID hit, and so my family was locked down here for a year, and I thought that was the end of my challenge in the U.S. But I got an offer from a small drama series called “The Swarm,” and then it kind of snowballed into what it is now, and it is still hard for me to believe it's going kind of well.
On the rise of Japanese stories in Hollywood
HIRA: I think it's the rise of the streaming platforms that try to reach out to different ethnicity groups, different genres, different interest groups. And I think that really opened up a lot of doors for us from Japan especially. The first drama series that I did with Netflix was called “Giri/Haji.” It's still on Netflix, you can watch. That was a joint project with Netflix and BBC in England in which I played the lead character, the detective. And that's, you know, something unheard of, unprecedented in Europe; the lead character is an Asian guy who speaks Japanese-accented English. So I think from 2017-18, I mean, I feel like things changed a lot. And I feel like there are lots of the projects, the roles that are more interesting to the Japanese audience.
Hira can be seen in season two of the television series "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," currently streaming on Apple TV+.
This story aired on The Conversation on April 6, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
