Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director Wes Ball detailed how the franchise’s newest big bad chimpanzee Proximus Caesar will be a relatable adversary.
“The interesting thing about Proximus is that, with some help, he’s rediscovered electricity,” Ball said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “To apes that forgot about all these things, that’s like a magic power. So they’re experimenting with it. I don’t even think you can call him a villain. I would call him an adversary. You understand him, you can relate to him in a way. It’s an interesting character who isn’t just a mustache-twirling cutout.”
Played by motion capture performer Kevin Durand, Proximus is expected to be a radically different villain than the human-hating Koba from 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes and 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The highly intelligent leader adopts and eventually disgraces the name of the previous trilogy’s hero Caesar (Andy Serkis) to enslave a clan of apes to seek human technology for his devious gain. Proximus will cross paths with the franchise’s new hero, Noa (Owen Teague), who seeks his purpose as an ape in the new world.
What is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes about?
The official synopsis reads: “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.”
Directed by Ball, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes stars Teague and Durand. Additional stars include Freya Allan, Peter Macon, Eka Darville, Travis Jeffery, Neil Sandilands, Sara Wiseman, Lydia Peckham, Ras-Samuel Welda’abzgi, William H. Macy, and Dichen Lachman.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is scheduled for release in theaters on May 24, 2024.
