Years since the last film was released in the reboot series, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is finally coming to cinemas this week.
For those wondering, this latest film is the fourth installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot series. To give you better context, the original Planet of the Apes (starring Charlton Heston) was released in 1968 and it got four sequels. Then, the series was revived with a Planet of the Apes remake in 2001 by Tim Burton, though that one wasn’t exactly a huge hit.
Ten years later, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released, and that film became a hit both critically and commercially, enough that it spawned two sequels to form the Apes reboot trilogy. While the trilogy told a fairly complete story, it will soon continue with Kingdom, a movie that’s set 300 years after War for the Planet of the Apes.
You can watch the latest film’s trailer here:
As this film follows a new cast of primates, the movie has a bunch of new actors. These include Owen Teague, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy. Meanwhile, one of the film’s few human characters is played by Freya Allan (Ciri from The Witcher).
Since the movie is set 300 years after the end of the trilogy, apes have become the dominant species of the world, and humans have regressed to being feral. Though one such human named Nova will play a key character alongside the young chimpanzee Noa who embarks on a journey to determine the future for apes and humans. This is because the ape king Proximus Caesar has twisted the original Ceasar’s teachings to enslave other ape clans.
As this is technically a sequel to the reboot trilogy, it’s ideal to watch all three movies (or rewatch them if you’ve seen them in cinemas already) to best experience this. Of course, if you’re lacking time, you should be able to jump straight into this new movie as it should still tell a satisfying story, provided that some backstory is given at the start.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is coming to cinemas in the Philippines this Wednesday, May 8.