There’s a new ape on the scene. The story of Caesar (Andy Serkis) came to an end in 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, but there is always… another. And in this case, it’s Caesar’s son, Cornelius (Owen Teague, from The Stand), carrying the cinematic torch.
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Matt Reeves, who directed the last two Apes films, has also moved on; he’s been replaced by Wes Ball, whose primary credits are three Maze Runner films. Along with Teague, the new cast includes Kevin Durand (Swamp Thing), Peter Macon (The Orville), William H. Macy (Shameless), Dichen Lachman (Severance), and The Witcher’s Freya Allan. From the trailer, it seems like Allan’s character is a pretty and very distressed human who, perhaps, makes Cornelius reconsider the apes’ longstanding (and generally justified) distrust of humanity.
Here’s the synopsis:
Director Wes Ball breathes new life into the global, epic, franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
Four writers bring us this new tale: Josh Friedman (Terminator: Dark Fate) and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (who also have a “characters created by” credit) and Patrick Aison (Prey). All the Apes tales can, sort of, be traced back to Pierre Boulle’s book La Planète des singes, but we’re so far off those pages that these movies are no longer adaptations in any sense of the word.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is in theaters May 24, 2024.
