(Image Credits: 20th Century Studios)
A new Planet of the Apes movie is reportedly in the works from director Matt Shakman and writer Josh Friedman, and in surprising news, the movie seems to be stepping away from the story established throughout the last few movies.
While a new Planet of the Apes movie is exciting, the news of it being wholly original could end up being a rare mistake in the franchise.
New Planet of the Apes announcement is an odd departure
While plot details are being kept under wraps, a report from Deadline notes that the movie will not be a continuation of 2024’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. That movie, which acted as a reboot of the film series and served as a standalone sequel to 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, seemed to set the stage for a new era of Apes movies, and ends extremely open-ended, with humans finally being able to contact one another while it’s left ambiguous whether or not humans and apes can live peacefully together.
While the ending of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes could be interpreted as having more finality to it, the film definitely always seemed to be setting up for a new era of films, much like the 2010s trilogy had. This could, of course, also be an entirely new movie that will stand aside a future sequel to Kingdom, but as of now it’s unclear whether or not that’s the case. Assuming it isn’t, though, this is a rare misstep for the franchise, which has been producing incredible movies for over a decade now.
New stories set in the Planet of the Apes franchise will always be enjoyable, and just repeatedly putting out sequels can lead to some fatigue, but in this case, it seems like a drastic change of course given what we knew. Following Kingdom’s release, there was talk of a new trilogy of Apes movies, and in 2024, a new film was said to be in the works. However, it seems like that is being cast aside for an entirely new story, leaving us to potentially wonder what might have happened in the Kingdoms trilogy that would’ve been.
20th Century Studios has earned some benefit of the doubt when it comes to the Apes franchise. The past four films in the series have all been varying degrees of great, and there is clearly some reverence for the franchise now. However, it’s a bit disappointing to see a new trilogy seemingly thrown away so quickly, especially following a successful first entry, for something else. Here’s hoping that a Kingdom sequel eventually releases and stands alongside Shakman’s new movie.
Originally written by Anthony Nash at SuperHeroHype
