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These apes really have it out for taking over our planet. Wes Ball, the director of the upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, teased in an exclusive interview with Empire magazine that the film could be the first in a new trilogy for the lucrative Apes franchise.
“From the beginning we thought about this as a trilogy,” Ball explained. “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.”
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the first Apes film released since Disney bought 21st Century Fox back in 2019. Fox had previously reboot the franchise with a trilogy of prequels, starting in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, followed by 2014's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes in 2017.
Ball said that while Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes picks up where those films left off, this film represents a new era in the saga. “I wanted to do a big leap forward in time,” Ball teased, without going into the exact chronology of how long Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place after War for the Planet of the Apes. (Though it still serves as a prequel to the original 1968 classic Planet of the Apes, so we know it's before that film at least).
“It’s significant enough that Caesar is still a spirit in the movie, but most of his living relatives are not in this picture,” continues Ball. “If the last three movies were the Stone Age, here we get to see what happens when they enter the Bronze Age.”
Ball said the new film also carries a slightly lighter and younger-skewing tone than the previous trilogy of prequels. “When I first started on it, I said, ‘I feel like Apes needs a little bit of Star Wars',” explained Ball.
“It’s all still very grounded in reality, but it is essentially a quest narrative. Our main character – the young, impressionable Noa [Owen Teague] – meets characters along the way and becomes awakened as he winds up in a place that will test him, and he ultimately becomes his true self.”
That does sound pretty Star Wars-y. Ball also points out that “We haven’t kiddified it, or Disneyfied it, if I’m allowed to say that!” he joked. “But we have brought a younger spirit to it.”
Seems like there's plenty more story to tell for the creative team behind this Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
