“Kingdom” Returns The Franchise To It’s Roots

The teaser trailer for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” has premiered and it looks to us like the trailer is returning the Apes franchise to it’s roots after 55 years.

The last modern Apes film concluded Ceasar’s story. It was a touching and action-packed ending as Ceaser led his group of apes to victory over Woody Harrelson and his military outpost. Without getting into spoilers, Maurice the orangutan ends the film with a promise to Ceaser that what they accomplished would continue on. The film was a solid ending to the new trilogy of Ape films, while leaving the door open to tell more stories. Rumor has it that “Kingdom” will be the first of a new Apes trilogy, and it looks like this set of films could be bringing the franchise right back to where it started.

The recently released teaser trailer looks stunning, and it contains a glimpse of the humans left in the world. Based on the trailer, it’s pretty clear that apes are now the dominant species, just like the original film. We even have an homage shot of the “savage” humans being pursued by Apes on horseback. This marks the first time humans have been depicted in this way since the original film was released in 1968.

We’ve heard that this new set of films will explore different “tribes” of apes living in this new world. It also seems like we’ll be getting a time jump of sorts in these new films. The initial three movies of this reboot had been set in present day, but this trailer looks like it jumps quite a ways in the future. We don’t know exactly how far ahead in the future this new film will be based, but we’ve heard rumors that it’s “several generations” past the last movie. We’re also guessing that the humans are not the bad guys in this movie, and instead, the film will focus on different factions of apes at war with one another.

As diehard Apes fans, we’re most intrigued by the possibility that Fox may be trying to connect the modern reboot to the original films in one big cinematic universe. It was never clear if the reboot series had any connection to the original films,

despite seeming like a prequel of sorts. Based on this trailer, we’re wondering if they will try to connect the recent trilogy to the original films? Or maybe Fox is setting up a full remake of the original Planet of the Apes movies? That would be amazing.

At the end of the day, we’re just super excited for any new Apes movies. We adore the originals but the reboot series stands on it’s own, and has been a real treat. Much better than the Tim Burton reboot, which had great costumes, but not much else. We think we speak for all fans that no matter what happens, this new trilogy needs to end with a bunch of bomb worshipping mutants blowing up the Planet of the Apes. That insane ending to Beneath the Planet of the Apes remains the craziest ending to a sequel ever filmed. Why did that second film in the series end in such a crazy way? Rumor has it that Charlton Heston refused to star in the Apes sequel, only agreeing to a brief cameo at the beginning and then at the end of the film, and his character had to die. This was also made at the same time that Fox Studio Executive - and producer on Planet of the Apes - Richard Zanuck was fired from the studio by his father.

Was the weird ending to the original sequel due to Heston’s contract requests? Or maybe it was a giant middle finger from Richard Zanuck to his father? Who knows. We’re just excited that the franchise lives on and we’re getting a bunch of new Apes films in the future.