Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director explains the film’s timeline, setting and cinematic universe
Exclusive: Director Wes Ball clarifies the new movie’s context
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ThePlanet of the Apesfranchise has endured for over six decades through seven books, 10 feature films and two TV series, so you’d be forgiven for losing track of where its centuries-spanning sci-fi story stands in 2024.
The latest entry in thePlanet of the Apessaga,Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, comes 61 years after the publication of Pierre Boulle’s novelLa Planète des singes, and 56 years after Charlton Heston first crash-landed on an ape-covered Earth in the originalPlanet of the Apesmovie. But the new film’s apocalyptic premise remains more or less identical to that which fascinated audiences way back in 1968.
Where, then, doesKingdom of the Planet of the Apessit in the widerPlanet of the Apesfranchise? Ahead of the film’s global release on May 10, TechRadar sat down with its director, Wes Ball, to clarifyKingdom’s timeline, setting and cinematic universe.
Cinematic universe
Let’s start with the film’s cinematic universe, since that provides wider context for its timeline and setting.Kingdom of the Planet of the Apesis a sequel to – in other words, a direct continuation of –War for the Planet of the Apes(2017), which itself is the third movie in a trilogy that begins withRise of the Planet of the Apes(2011). These four films take place in the same cinematic universe, which we’ll describe, for simplicity, as the Caesar-verse.
Riseis framed as an origin story for simian intelligence, and therefore the film – and its three sequels – are narrative prequels to the originalPlanet of the Apesmovie (1963), which is set in the year 3978, but they’re not set in the same cinematic universe. At least, not explicitly.
“The truth is,” Ball explains, “freedom is kind of built into these movies. The relationships between all of the different sequels have always been a little loose – there isn’t some really tight, definedcanonthat we have to follow necessarily. We’re very aware of the long legacy of these movies, but this is a franchise that’s so old, audiences’ tastes have changed. You can’t do it the same way – you can’t build up to doing exactly what the original Charlton Heston movie did [in 1968]. We don’t make movies like that anymore.”
The director continues: “We want to try and stay true to what people are hoping for, but we have some freedom, I think [because there’s a clear distinction between] the movies before us – the Caesar trilogy – and the 1968 original.”
By the sounds of things, then, the Caesar movies arenotset in the same universe as the originalPlanet of the Apesmovie, even if, narratively, they could be. Mind you, that line of thinking only applies toPlanet of the Apesand its sequel,Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1973), since several of the original movie’s four sequels – namelyEscape from the Planet of the Apes(1972) andConquest of the Planet of the Apes(1973) – are set during modern times, rather than 3978 onwards (i.e. they take place beforeRise, which wouldn’t make sense).
There are, however, many (many!) Easter eggs in the Caesar-verse movies that directly allude to the originalPlanet of the Apesmovies (more on these later), and Ball hasn’t entirely rubbished the idea future Caesar-verse sequels might come full circle and show the moment at which Charlton Heston’s character – or a version of him – crash lands on Earth in 3978: “I’m sure many people want that. But we’ve got a lot of story to tell before that happens.”
Incidentally, Tim Burton’s 2001Planet of the Apesmovie can be thought of as a standalone entity.
Timeline
Several online synopses forKingdom of the Planet of the Apessuggest that the film takes place exactly 300 years afterWar for the Planet of the Apes(2017), which itself is set in 2028 (or thereabouts). If that were true,Kingdomtakes place in the year 2328. However, in the opening credits to the new film, no specific date is given – instead, it says events take place “many generations” after the events ofWar– and Ball is keen to retain that ambiguity.
“We never really put a date on it to be honest,” the director explains,” which was a brilliant move on our writers’ part. I think it’s good for people to have their own interpretation of what [that time jump] is. It’s long enough that Caesar’s legacy has been lost, and that the landscape around the apes has slowly collapsed into nature. It’s enough time for myth and legend to have taken over.”
Setting
Every movie in the Caesar-verse is set on the West Coast of the US.RiseandDawnare set in or around San Francisco, whileWaris set slightly farther north, in Washington or Oregon (filming took place in British Columbia, Vancouver and Alberta).
The production notes forKingdomexplain that Ball had “always envisioned the setting of the film as non-specific but somewhere on the West Coast,” and although it’s never confirmed, we can make an educated guess that events take place in the Los Angeles area.
The majority of on-location filming forKingdomtook place in Australia, because, as Ball explains, “they have a lot of eucalyptus trees in Australia, as we do in Los Angeles, and the quality of the light is similar.” Clearly, then, Ball wanted to replicate the appearance of a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles inKingdomby filming in Australia. A huge overgrown airport (LAX?) also features prominently in the film, which is telling.
Why move events back down south? “We didn’t want to go back to Vancouver to shoot, where the previous three movies went, because although it has this beautiful, overcast light, it’s a dark and brooding look,” Ball says. “We wanted to go out into the light. This movie is a new beginning. It’s a new day for these apes, who are entering the next chapter of their existence. We wanted ugly, harsh sunlight.”
The Nova reference
Mild spoilers for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes follow
As alluded to in an earlier section of this explainer, the Caesar-verse movies make several explicit references to the originalPlanet of the Apesmovies – despite not being set in the same cinematic universe – as well as to each other. The most explicit of these references is the repeated use of the name Nova.
InKingdom, Freya Allen’s human character, Mae, is initially called Nova. Raka, the film’s scholarly orangutan, explains that all humans, and therefore Mae, are called Nova by the apes for an unknown reason (“it was from Caesar’s time,” he says). As the audience, we know that Caesar’s best friend, Maurice – another scholarly orangutan – attributed the name Nova to the mute human girl inWarafter coming across a rusty Chevy Nova symbol. In light of what we learn from Raka inKingdom, Caesar’s clan of apes presumably gave the same name to all humans they encountered thereafter.
But Nova is also a mute human character from the originalPlanet of the Apesmovie. Played by Linda Harrison, this Nova is the love interest of Taylor, the astronaut who crash-lands on Earth in 3978. Given that far-flung timeline, there’s no way that either Nova character from the two most recent Caesar-verse movies is – or will ultimately be revealed to be – the same Nova character from the originalPlanet of the Apesmovie. However, inKingdom,Freya Allen’s Novadoesperform her own version of Harrison’s iconic “Taylor!” scream, which – are you keeping up? – can be thought of as a reference within a reference.
Ball clarifies: “No, it’s not the same Nova. But thereisa scene in the movie where we touch on that a little bit. There are lots of little connections between our movie and the legacyApesmovies. We even have a little bit ofBeneathin this movie, in a weird way.”
Incidentally, just to make your head spin even more, ‘nova’ is derived from the latin word ‘novus’, meaning ‘new’. Who’d have thought that a franchise about anthropomorphic monkeys could be so complex?
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is now playing in theaters worldwide.
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Axel is TechRadar’s UK-based Phones Editor, reporting on everything from the latest Apple developments to newest AI breakthroughs as part of the site’s Mobile Computing vertical. Having previously written for publications including Esquire and FourFourTwo, Axel is well-versed in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and his coverage extends from general reporting and analysis to in-depth interviews and opinion.
Axel studied for a degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick before joining TechRadar in 2020, where he then earned an NCTJ qualification as part of the company’s inaugural digital training scheme.
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