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.

After the 2017 film showed Caesar leading his kind to an oasis, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes picks up with numerous ape societies continuing to thrive, while humans have been reduced to a nearly feral existence. As one ape ruler enslaves others amid his quest for human technology, a different ape seeks freedom and hopes to work with a young human woman to achieve that goal.

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.

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.

The franchise launched in 1968 with the Charlton Heston-led Planet of the Apes, loosely based on the 1963 novel from Pierre Boulle. After four sequels and a pair of television series, the franchise returned in 2001 with a Tim Burton-directed reboot before a relaunch in 2011 with Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which featured Andy Serkis as Caesar. 

Planet of the Apes has been an incredibly successful franchise, with a total of ten films, including this one. The effects keep improving, though there seems to be a ceiling to how good they’re going to get from this point. The effects and animation here are not noticeably any better than in the previous film, 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, and indeed even in this teaser, there are a couple of uncanny valley closeups of animated ape faces.

This one will be a must watch for Apes fans. We’re looking forward to the full trailer to find out more, and when we get it, so will you, with our commentary.

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