‘War of the Planet of the Apes’ will close out trilogy
While details haven’t been released, the sequel to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has received an official title: War of the Planet of the Apes, coming to theaters in 2017.
“First there was a Rise. Then there was a Dawn. Now there will be a War. Yes, the title of Matt Reeves‘ 2017 Planet of the Apes prequel has now been revealed. It’ll be called War of the Planet of the Apes. Read more about the film below,” writes Slash Film.
Collider broke the news of the title, but it is noteworthy to mention that this hasn’t been an official announcement from Fox or Reeves and the film two films had several name changes and modifications to the release dates.
War of the Planet of the Apes seems appropriate as Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ended with Caesar (Andy Serkis) warning that the actions in that film had started a war with the humans. Also, the humans in that film contacted the military near the end of the movie, whether or not this film picks up minutes after the last one, or months/years later, the setup was clear.
Moreover, since few details are known, Serkis and Reeves returning are about the only thing that can be confirmed.
Reeves was already pushing to send the apes into war for the ending of Dawn, and told Collider that the original ending “went one step further”, but he didn’t want to be boxed in. Here’s his full quote:
“We actually did have an ending that went one step further, and I realized late in the game, ‘Wait a minute. I don’t want us to be boxed in in this way. I think we should be left with a more open—knowing that we were going to figure out what the next story is—I didn’t want to in a way narrow our options.’ I wanted to open them up.
What was really most important was to leave you in that emotional space with Caesar, which is the ending of the movie that you’ve seen, and know that the future is coming, but not already be at that future. Because the moment is really about the moment that’s past. It could have been the planet of the humans and the apes, and that parting between Caesar and Malcolm is a very emotional moment to me, and I didn’t want something that distracted and became something else.
So yeah, there actually was another version of the movie, and that version never even got fully realized. We cut it late, but the effects for it weren’t realized for it either.”
In interviews for Dawn, Reeves talked a bit about the inevitable war Caesar would have with the humans:
“As this story continues, we know that war is not avoided by the end of DAWN. That is going to take us into the world of what he is grappling with. Where he is going to be thrust into circumstances that he never, ever wanted to deal with, and was hoping he could avoid. And now he is right in the middle of it. The things that happen in that story test him in huge ways, in the ways in which his relationship with Koba haunts him deeply. It’s going to be an epic story. I think you’ve probably read that I sort of described it where in the first film was very much about his rise from humble beginnings to being a revolutionary. The second movie was about having to rise to the challenge of being a great leader in the most difficult of times. This is going to be the story that is going to cement his status as a seminal figure in ape history, and sort of leads to an almost biblical status. He is going to become like a mythic ape figure, like Moses.”
War of the Planet of the Apes opens July 14, 2017.
