When War for the Planet of the Apes concluded with the death of Caesar, it shocked a lot of fans and all but confirmed that the trilogy had been a self-contained new take on the franchise rather than a lead-in to the original series.
That was a stark contrast from what Rise of the Planet of the Apes promised back in 2011, but with Disney now returning to the sci-fi series, it's time for another fresh start. However, instead of picking up with Caesar's son, Empire Online (via SFFGazette.com) reveals the franchise is jumping far into the far future...300 years further, in fact!
The site explains that in the generations which have passed since Caesar's time, his message of "apes together strong" has largely been lost. Noa, however, appears to live by that creed despite knowing little of his kind's original leader.
"Noa has no idea who that is," Noa actor Owen Teague tells the site of his character's relationship with Caesar. "Part of his journey is a discovery of that legacy and its various interpretations. Noa has to make sense of what it all means."
As for the villainous Proximus Caesar, actor Kevin Durand explains, "Caesar is almost a religious figure, and Proximus has taken on the name Caesar because it was the highest position held in ape society. It was a self-proclamation that was achieved by any means necessary, to ensure that apes continue to evolve."
"So 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."
It sounds like Noa is the true heir to the throne, with Proximus Caesar a pretender, of sorts. According to filmmaker Wes Ball, "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. They were about the end of this Moses story. They were about the end of humanity," the filmmaker adds. "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."
A new still from Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has also been released which you can check out below.
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.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, a new entry in 20th Century Studios' global, epic franchise, opens exclusively in theaters on May 24, 2024.