Despite a Planet Of The Apes prequel trilogy recently being completed, 20th Century Fox is not done producing more monkey mayhem. The studio – now owned by Disney, of course – is moving forward with another Planet Of The Apes movie, and has tapped The Maze Runner director Wes Ball to helm.
Per THR, Fox is “making moves to create a new chapter in the long-running franchise”. This is the first major Fox IP to get the Disney treatment. It’s unclear if this will reboot the story once more or continue the one laid out in the recent trilogy.
The recent trilogy starred Andy Serkis as Caesar in a motion-capture role, but it’s unclear if he’s returning. He’s following Matt Reeves – who directed two of the three recent Apes films – to The Batman, so it’s possible that rules him out if Fox/Disney want to get started soon.
That’s pretty much all we know. If this is a new story timeline, it will be the fourth in the franchise’s history. The original film series began in 1968 with the most famous version and contained five films. Then there was the ill-conceived Tim Burton version in 2001, complete with an overthought, bizarre ending. Then 2011 brought us the prequel Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes and two further movies.
We’ll wait and see what Fox/Disney has in store for the series. The most recent film, War For The Planet Of The Apes, made over $490 million worldwide, so clearly there’s still an audience appetite for ape action.
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