The Planet of the Apes franchise is set to make a dramatic comeback in the coming years, especially after Disney’s acquisition of Fox. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the next film in the franchise and is set years after the events of the last prequel, which was directed by Matt Reeves. Caesar, the protagonist of the previous trilogy, has already passed away, so it’s expected that there will be a new cast of heroes (and villains) to join the franchise.
This franchise has its roots in science fiction, but with the added elements of some very real world commentary, an aspect that could be explored as these films continue. Here are some predictions for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
A New Hero
The previous trilogy in the franchise was centered around Caesar. The three films showed his life from before he was born, where his mother was captured in the wild, to then going and living with James Franco’s character and eventually becoming a free ape. The second film in the trilogy focused on Earth after the initial collapse in human society. The final installment saw the humans almost completely wiped out, paving the way for the apes to completely take over. Caesar died in those final moments, overlooking the sunset.
For these new films, it appears likely that a new ape will become the central character. Much as the main hero of the previous trilogy was an ape, one can expect the same for the new set of movies. It makes sense given the timeline, as humans have returned to an animalistic lifestyle by this point, unable to speak. Meanwhile, apes should be evolving and progressing rapidly, so a focus on them as they advance makes sense.
Humans Are Still The Villains
The last film featured Woody Harrelson as the human villain, where he was extremely bigoted towards the apes and wanted to secure humanity's future at the expense of their primate cousins. As of the new film’s place in the timeline, humans are said to be unable to speak, much like they were in the first outing. However, it seems a distinct possibility that, while most of the humans are living in the wild and have become the prey, there could be a few that managed to escape the virus that took away speech.
Humans and apes have always been at odds in these films, right from the very beginning. So even if a human can’t speak in this new film, it would be in line with tradition to continue to put the two against each other.
Caesar Is A Legend Of The Ape World
Caesar was essentially the ape that started the freedom and liberation of chimps, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans. He was the first to show advanced intelligence, bar his mother who died soon after he was born. He also had a direct connection to the birth of the airborne virus that wiped out most of the humans, as the lab that Caesar came from was the same place that the disease started.
Caesar had always had a leadership role in his ape community, but now that he’s dead, it would make sense that they would carry on his memory and honor him. At their most advanced in this long-running movie series, apes had statues and a religion of their own, so it’s possible that Caesar is honored with a memorial or a tribute of some kind.
The Ape Society Is In Their Renaissance Era
The whole point of the first film’s story was that the apes and their society were extremely sophisticated and intelligent, such is the strength of the minds of these incredible animals. However, as the prequel films show, they weren’t always that advanced.
Any new set of films in the franchise are likely to show the apes becoming more advanced, perhaps even in the middle of a technological and innovational boom that sets them on their path forward for the years to come. It would be particularly intriguing to have the ape society mirroring the journey of humankind, maybe even with a Renaissance era.
Apes Have Language
In the last films, Caesar was one of the few apes that was able to speak with his voice. Most of the others used sign language and hand gestures to communicate, but it was Caesar who spoke directly with the humans in English.
As the new movie is set years later, it’s likely that these apes are going to have developed enough to the point where they are all like Caesar. That is, they all have the ability to speak English and can communicate with each other on an even more advanced level. This would help with the dialogue scenes in particular, as these had to be carefully constructed in the prequels to work around the fact that Caesar was the only one who could vocalize.