Planet of the Apes is one of those franchises that will probably never die. It almost died after its first reboot that Tim Burton directed in 2001. Fortunately, someone did something right in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and it was apparently good enough to merit a sequel in 2014 with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Now there is going to be a third and probably not a final movie in what is currently a trilogy with War of the Planet of the Apes. And this is what is known about the third film with its release date, new trailer, and more news.
The new trailer shows off very little of the film. There is a dark background and a snowfall, and the flakes form around an ape's face, who is probably Caesar, the leader ape and returning character. What is interesting is the snow forms on the ape's face, and I expect him to open his eyes and look really scary or something. Instead, the snow just disappears with the ape gone. Oh, there is also a promise of all-out war.
For those that remember the first of the new reboots with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar was an ape that was given a special formula that made him very smart. In fact, he was so smart, he realized that he should live with the other monkeys, and they should all be free. So he freed a whole bunch of monkeys that he was held captive with, and infected them with the super-smart potion. That's the first film in a nutshell.
Then, in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, there was kind of an apocalypse. I say kind of, because there wasn't really much of a lead-in to the post-apocalyptic atmosphere except some kind of plague, only briefly introduced in the first film. Anyway, the world is divided into two camps at the beginning with the apes on outside of San Francisco with the humans living in the city.
In fact, the two camps almost got along in the film, but...yeah, that just didn't happen. After all, we got to have that Charlton Heston Planet of the Apes film somehow, assuming that they tie-in at all (which there probably isn't). There isn't much at the end of the second movie to lead to another film, other that there is even more animosity between human and apes.
There is a report on CinemaBlend that there will be a villainous figure known as the Colonel, who is going to lead the humans against the apes, and he will be played by Woody Harrelson. Speaking of actors, it looks like Andy Serkis will be reprising his role as Caesar, and Judy Greer will be reprising her role as an ape with Cornelia.
According to CNET, there will be more about the film revealed at New York Comic Con (NYCC), and War for the Planet of the Apes will hit theaters in July 14, 2017.
