Director Wes Ball is preparing to relaunch the Apes franchise with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and we’ve learned new things about this next chapter.
The story of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place three centuries after the conclusion of 2017’s trilogy, with humans being reduced to a feral-like existence.
The cast and crew spoke about the film to Empire, with Owen Teague describes Noa, the new lead ape, saying his character has no idea of Caesar and “part of his journey is a discovery of that legacy and its various interpretations. Noa has to make sense of what it all means.”
“You’re seeing the influence and the evolution of what Caesar left. And, like in every morsel of human history, there’s always some type of tyrant who comes along and scares everyone into believing them,” says Kevin Durand, who plays Proximus Caesar, a crown-wearing chimp.
Ball looks at the film as a start to something new, “From the beginning, we thought about this as a trilogy. We had these grand ideas of where it could ultimately go and how it could fit into the legacy of these movies. So I’m certainly talking to [the studio] right now about the next story.”
“Those last three movies were about the end of something,” Ball continues. “They were about the end of this Moses story. They were about the end of humanity, and we thought, ‘From the ashes of those previous movies, we’re gonna grow a new tree to climb.’ This movie is very much about the beginning of something.”
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Many apes societies have grown from when the Moses-like Caesar brought his people to an oasis, while humans have been reduced to feral-like. Some ape groups have never heard of Caesar, while others have contorted his teaching to build burgeoning empires.
In this setting, one ape leader begins to enslave other groups to find human technology, while another ape, who watched his clan be taken, embarks on a journey to find freedom. A young human woman becomes key to the latter’s quest, although she has plans of her own.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Wes Ball (The Maze Runner) and features a cast that includes Owen Teague (It), Freya Allan (The Witcher), Peter Macon (The Orville), Kevin Durand (Locke & Key), Travis Jeffery (Unbroken, Neil Sandilands (Sweet Tooth), William H. Macy (Shameless), Sara Wiseman (One Of Us Is Lying), Ras-Samuel Welda’abzgi (The Clearing), Lydia Peckham (Cowboy Bebop) and Dichen Lachman (Severance).
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will be released on May 24th, 2024.
Originally published December 16, 2023. Updated March 24, 2024.
