Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director explains the film’s timeline, setting, and cinematic universe
The Planet of the Apes franchise has endured for more than six decades across seven books, ten feature films and two TV series, so you’d be forgiven for losing track of where the age-old sci-fi story stands in 2024.
The latest message in the Planet of the Apes saga, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apescomes 61 years after the publication of Pierre Boulle’s novel La Planète des singesand 56 years after Charlton Heston first crash-landed on a monkey-covered Earth in the original Planet of the Apes movie. But the apocalyptic premise of the new film remains more or less identical to what fascinated audiences back in 1968.
Where Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is in the wider one Planet of the Apes franchise? Ahead of the film’s worldwide release on May 10, Ny Breaking spoke to director Wes Ball to clarify Kingdom‘s timeline, setting, and cinematic universe.
Cinematic universe
Let’s start with the film’s cinematic universe, as that provides a broader context for the timeline and setting. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a sequel to – in other words, a direct continuation of – War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), which is itself the third film in a trilogy that begins with Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011). These four films take place in the same cinematic universe, which for simplicity we will describe as the Caesar Verse.
To get up is framed as an origin story for ape intelligence, which is why the film – and its three sequels – are narrative prequels to the original Planet of the Apes movie (1963), set in the year 3978, but they are 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 the different sequels have always been a bit loose – there isn’t a really tight, defined canon that we necessarily have to follow. We’re very aware of the long legacy of these films, but this is a franchise so old that audiences’ tastes have changed. You can’t do it the same way – you can’t do exactly what the original Charlton Heston film did (in 1968). We don’t make films like that anymore.”
The director continues: “We want to try to stay true to what people hope for, but we have some freedom, I think (because there is a clear distinction between) the films ahead of us – the Caesar trilogy – and the original from 1968.”
It sounds like the Caesar films are too not Set in the same universe as the original Planet of the Apes film, even though they could be so narratively. Mind you, that line of thought only applies to Planet of the Apes and its sequel, Under the Planet of the Apes (1973)as several of the four sequels to the original film – viz Escape from the planet of the apes (1972) and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1973) – are set in modern times, rather than from 3978 (i.e. they take place before To get upwhich wouldn’t make sense).
However, there are many (many!) Easter eggs in the Caesar verse films that directly reference the original Planet of the Apes movies (more on this later), and Ball hasn’t entirely dismissed the idea that future Caesar-verse sequels could come full circle and show the moment when Charlton Heston’s character – or some version of him – in 3978 earth crashes: “ I’m sure a lot of people want that. But we still have a lot of story to tell before that happens.”
By the way, Tim Burton’s 2001 Planet of the Apes film can be seen as an entity in its own right.
Timeline
Several online summaries for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes suggest that the film is set exactly 300 years later War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), set in 2028 (or thereabouts). If that were true, Kingdom takes place in the year 2328. However, the new film’s opening credits do not give a specific date – instead it says that the events take place “many generations” after the events of War – and Ball is keen to maintain that ambiguity.
“To be honest, we never really put a date on it,” the director explains, “which was a brilliant move by our writers. I think it’s good that people have their own interpretation of what (that time jump) is. is long enough that Caesar’s legacy has been lost and the landscape around the apes has slowly faded into nature. It is enough time for myth and legend to take over.”
Institution
Every movie in the Caesar verse is set on the west coast of the US. To get up And Dawn are set in or around San Francisco, while War is set a little further north, in Washington or Oregon (filming took place in British Columbia, Vancouver and Alberta).
The production notes for Kingdom explain that Ball “always envisioned the film’s setting as non-specific, but somewhere on the West Coast,” and while it has never been confirmed, we can make a good guess that the events take place in the Los Angeles area.
Most of the shooting on location Kingdom took place in Australia because, as Ball explains, “in Australia they have a lot of eucalyptus trees, just like we do in Los Angeles, and the quality of light is similar.” So it’s clear that Ball wanted to recreate the look of a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles Kingdom by filming in Australia. A huge overgrown airport (LAX?) also plays a prominent role in the film, which is significant.
Why move events back to the south? “We didn’t want to go back to Vancouver to shoot, which is where the previous three films went, because even though it’s beautiful, cloudy light, it looks dark and gloomy,” says Ball. “We wanted to go to the light. This film is a new beginning. It’s a new day for these monkeys, who are entering the next chapter of their existence. We wanted ugly, bright sunlight.”
The Nova reference
Mild spoilers for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes follow
As alluded to in an earlier part of this explanation, the Caesar-verse films contain several explicit references to the original Planet of the Apes films – despite not being set in the same cinematic universe – and also with each other. The most explicit of these references is the repeated use of the name Nova.
In KingdomFreya Allen’s human character, Mae, is initially named Nova. Raka, the film’s scientific orangutan, explains that all humans, including Mae, are called Nova by the apes for some unknown reason (“it was from the time of Caesar,” he says). As an audience, we know that Caesar’s best friend, Maurice – another learned orangutan – attributed the name Nova to the mute human girl in War after coming across a rusty Chevy Nova symbol. In light of what we learn from Raka in KingdomCaesar’s monkey clan probably gave the same name to all humans they encountered afterwards.
But Nova is also a mute human character from the original Planet of the Apes movie. This Nova, played by Linda Harrison, is the love interest of Taylor, the astronaut who crash-lands on Earth in 3978. Given that distant timeline, there’s no way that either of the Nova characters from the two most recent Caesar-verse films – or will eventually be revealed to be the same Nova character from the original Planet of the Apes movie. However, inside Kingdom, Freya Allen’s Nova do her own version of Harrison’s iconic “Taylor!” shout, which one – are you keeping track? – can be seen as a reference within a reference.
Ball clarifies: “No, it’s not the same Nova. But there is a scene in the movie where we touch on that a little bit. There are a lot of little connections between our film and the legacy Apes movies. We even have a little bit of it below in this film, in a strange way.”
To make your head spin even more, ‘nova’ is derived from the Latin word ‘novus’, which means ‘new’. Who would have thought that a franchise about anthropomorphic apes could be so complex?
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is now playing in theaters around the world.