Warning: Spoilers for Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes are in play. If you haven’t seen either film, bookmark this page and come back when you’re up to date. By the end of Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, ape leader Caesar (Andy Serkis) and human leader Malcolm (Jason Clarke) had remained friends but sadly had to part company, anyway. The reason being that the events involving Koba’s sabotage and Dreyfus’ (Gary Oldman) call for back up had basically locked humanity into the long, hard struggle that would eventually see the Planet Of The Apes come to historical fruition. While we’re not going to get to that point just yet, we do have an idea where things are going, as the new title for the 2017 sequel has been revealed. You’ve seen the Rise and survived the Dawn… now it’s time to prepare for the War Of The Planet Of The Apes.
Collider broke the exclusive tidbit this afternoon, as a source of theirs has reported that the title to the untitled Planet Of The Apes sequel has decided to beat the drums of war. The scoop also provides a great refresher on why this title makes sense on a surface level, as Caesar’s last lines were confirming that "Apes start war… and Human will not forgive." It looks like director Matt Reeves and company weren’t only setting us up for a really effective ending with that line, but they were foreshadowing the fact that they’re ready to go all out in the next film.
On one hand, this is a great title! Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes altered its ending to allow for breathing room in the plot of the series’ future trajectory, so instead of the original ending -- which would have seen warships arriving in San Francisco -- we instead saw Caesar surrounded by the love and respect of his people. Our protagonist had turned from an unlikely figure of power to a reluctant figure of war. War has been a long time coming in the world of the Apes, and with the aid of one of last year’s greatest action sequences, audiences should be stoked for the War Of The Planet Of The Apes
Of course, there’s a slight downside to the next film being titled as such. While War Of The Planet Of The Apes is a grabbing title, and promises a lot of mayhem involving primates of all shapes and sizes, it puts a little added pressure on the story. Depending on how far of a jump in time there is between Dawn and War Of The Planet Of The Apes, the direct mention of war in the title promises a lot of forward action for the ape civilization. This goes against Matt Reeves’ storytelling approach of a slow, eventual arrival to the world we know from the original Planet Of The Apes. But most important, it doesn’t spell a good end for Caesar.
Both Caesar and Malcolm could try to push for peace within their time, as neither of them really wants a conflict. Just because Caesar acknowledged the coming storm doesn’t mean he wants to get wet when it all comes down. Having already survived one attack by a compatriot who felt that humanity needed to go, it’s only a matter of time before another challenger tries to usurp the throne. It’s not personal, it’s just the way nature goes. Of course, there’s plenty of time for speculation and guesswork, as the film isn’t scheduled to be released until 2017; but for now we’ve got a pretty awesome title to build a ton of high expectations and fan art off of.
War Of The Planet Of The Apes gears up for conflict on July 14, 2017; and our fingers are crossed that at least one more tie in book will fill in some of the gaps that will undoubtedly be present between the present and future installment.
