3 THINGS ABOUT KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES 1

Centuries after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes, apes are the Earth’s dominant species while humans have regressed to an animalistic state.

As ape leader, Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) builds his empire and Noa (Owen Teague), a young ape, undertakes a harrowing journey that forces him to question all he’s learned and to make choices that will define the future of apes and humans.

Directed by Wes Ball, the new movie is set 300 years in the future.

“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,” Wes told Empire magazine.

“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.”

2 The director was inspired by the original 1968 Apes movie, which starred Charlton Heston.

“I was a huge fan of it when I was kid,” Wes said. So, could we do this thing where we are both a sequel and a prequel, essentially? We find ourselves sort of in the middle, honouring 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.”

3 Newcomers to the Apes universe won’t be left out, Wes said.

“This isn’t like season three of a TV series; you will have enough to enjoy it for what it is.

“We have a little opening prologue that sets the table a little bit.”

If you do want a recap, all the Planet of the Apes movies – the original five, Tim Burton’s bananas remake and the prequel trilogy – are on Disney+.