Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director teases more films: "We definitely have ideas"
The new film is set roughly 300 years after the recent prequel trilogy, which starred Andy Serkis.
The new film in the long-running Planet of the Apes franchise has arrived in cinemas to mostly positive reviews – continuing the success of the previous prequel trilogy starring Andy Serkis.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is set roughly 300 years after the events of those films, and introduces a new bunch of characters living in a world where apes are now the dominant species, albeit with a slightly less advanced civilisation than in the original 1968 film.
It also ends in a way that leaves the door wide open for the possibility of further entries in the saga – and indeed, director Wes Ball has already got his eyes on where the series might go next, as he explained in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.
"We definitely have ideas of where we want to go with it," he said. "You know, this long legacy of these movies are always kind of about certain themes and ideas.
"And if we're fortunate and we’re successful that we can make more, we'd certainly love to."
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Elsewhere in the interview, he hinted that the future of main character Noa – played in motion capture by Owen Teague – would be heavily influenced by the events that have already happened in the new film.
"Our main character is a very naive, kind of innocent character who has his eyes opened to a world he never knew existed," he explained.
"And that's part of his journey – it's one of discovery, you know what I mean? And ultimately, all these things he goes through and the things he learns from the different characters, shapes him into the character he's going to become in hopefully future movies."
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It had previously been reported that the film was conceived as the first in a trilogy, and it's certainly looking hopeful that that plan will now come to fruition, especially given the wave of enthusiastic reviews.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the 10th film in the franchise, which started over half a century ago with the aforementioned first film in 1968.
That was followed by a run of four sequels released in consecutive years between 1970 and 1973, and a long wait followed before Tim Burton's ill-fated reimagining in 2001, the only film in the series to be almost universally disregarded.
But things were then put back on the right track in 2011 with the beginning of the reboot trilogy – and the franchise now looks to be in rude health.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is released in UK cinemas on Thursday 9th May 2024.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
