Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes producers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver have teased the new world decades after Caesar’s death and shared how the cinematic experience compares to the Avatar and Dune franchises.
“Well, the world has changed,” Jaffa said in an interview alongside Silver in SFX magazine. “On a thematic level, it’s asking different questions, and the characters are different. I’d also say the same thing that you could say for Avatar or Dune: it’s visually stunning. There’s nothing like it, really. That experience, in the theatre, of a whole new world. Yes, it’s our world, but our world looks different.”
“It’s a beautiful film, anchored in beautiful characters that you really care about,” Silver said. “Yes, you’ve got this epic landscape, but none of it works unless it’s anchored by great characters and a compelling story. This next adventure offers things that are brand new, fresh surprises, while being familiar and while honoring the past.”
Director Wes Ball echoed similar sentiments about Kingdom’s approach to telling a fresh new story set in the world that began with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes and its sequels Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes.
“We came up with this idea to stay in the same universe,” Ball said. “We’re still a part of Caesar’s world, but we’re cutting many, many years later, after the fact, where you get to really explore what’s become of Caesar, what’s become of his legacy, his ideas. Also, on the same level of the Apes thing, there’s this 1968 version that really started everything, which I was a huge fan of when I was a kid. So, could we do this thing where we are both a sequel and a prequel, essentially? We find ourselves sort of in the middle, honoring where we came from with this great reboot that happened with the Caesar trilogy, and start making our way to that ‘68 version where apes are talking and have democracy and all this crazy stuff. So, that was kind of the approach that we took.”
What is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes about?
The official synopsis for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes 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.”
Owen Teague headlines the latest Apes movie alongside Freya Allan (The Witcher), Peter Macon (The Orville), Eka Darville (Marvel’s Jessica Jones), Kevin Durand (Swamp Thing), Travis Jeffery (Preacher), Neil Sandilands (The Flash), Sara Wiseman (Power Rangers Dino Fury), Lydia Peckham (Cowboy Bebop), Ras-Samuel Welda’abzgi (The Clearing), William H. Macy (Mystery Men), and Dichen Lachman (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is scheduled for release in theaters on May 10.
