Posted in: 20th Century Studios, Movies | Tagged: 20th century studios, disney, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, wes ball

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Sets Up A New Trilogy

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director Wes Ball says that this new film sets up a new trilogy of films that takes place 300 years after the last set of films.

There is nothing that studios love more than a trilogy of films. That's why so many films feel like they are holding their best moments back in the first film; they probably are, and the studio is hoping that they can pull out all the stops on the sequel or even the third movie. However, that often means that you're gambling on what could potentially be a mediocre first film in the trilogy, and if that first film doesn't do well, then there wasn't any point in holding back because those potential sequels aren't going to happen. 20th Century Studios is returning to the Planet of the Apes films next year with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and we knew that there was going to be a massive time jump with this new film, 300 years, but director Wes Ball has confirmed to Empire that this film is another trilogy because of course it is.

"From the beginning, we thought about this as a trilogy," says Ball. "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."

However, don't expect Ball to be tied into this universe for the next decade or so; he does have other things that he plans on working on. One of those major projects is the live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda over at Sony and Nintendo. However, Ball went on to explain, "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. 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." The time jump and not having to shoehorn in characters from the previous movies is probably the best move that anyone involved with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes could make to try and make this new set of films work. It shakes off a decent amount of the baggage of the other films and elevates that to legend and myths within the world of the film. That being said, people are still really nervous about this one, doubly so considering how good the last series of films were.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Release Date, Summary, Cast List

A new entry in the studio's global, epic franchise, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, will open exclusively in theaters nationwide on May 24, 2024.

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 is directed by Wes Ball (the Maze Runner trilogy) and stars Owen Teague (IT), Freya Allan (The Witcher), Kevin Durand (Locke & Key), Peter Macon (Shameless), and William H. Macy (Fargo). The screenplay is by Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds) and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Avatar: The Way of Water) and Patrick Aison (Prey), based on characters created by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver, and the producers are Wes Ball, Joe Hartwick, Jr. (The Maze Runner), Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Jason Reed (Mulan), with Peter Chernin (the Planet of the Apes trilogy) and Jenno Topping (Ford v. Ferrari) serving as executive producers.

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