The planet will still be ruled by apes as 20th Century Studios has tapped The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman to helm a new Planet of the Apes film.
Shakman is developing the film with his Fantastic Four writer Josh Friedman for what is said to be an original story that Deadline reports will not be a continuation of 2024’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. The latest film was itself a distant sequel to the rebooted origin trilogy which followed Caesar and the apes’ rise to the dominant society on the planet. Kingdom, which Friedman also wrote, took place centuries after War for the Planet of the Apes following a new group of apes encountering humans for the first time as well as a much more militant society of apes.
Shakman and Friedman are developing the film with Apes producers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, who penned the story with Friedman. There is no word on a potential release window or full confirmation the new film will not pick up on Kingdom‘s story so we will have to wait and see for news on both.
Shakman directed Marvel’s first Disney+ series WandaVision, which years later is still regarded as one of the MCU’s best productions. He returned to the MCU last year by rebooting Marvel’s first family in The Fantastic Four: First Steps and the Fantastic Four will be seen again later this year in the much anticipated Avengers: Doomsday. Along with the Marvel film, Friedman also contributed to James Cameron’s Avatar sequels The Way of Water and Fire and Ash.
