Planet of the Apes fans rest easy, the upcoming new film in the franchise from Disney and 20th Century Studios is still happening. The new continuation of the Planet of the Apes series, from director Wes Ball in collaboration with screenwriter Josh Friedman, is said to still be in development and is planned to start shooting by the end of the year. This was claimed by Steve Asbell, 20th Century Studios President, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
In the interview, meant to celebrate Asbell’s 20th year at the company, he discussed many of the upcoming projects that audiences can expect to see. After alluding to the new Planet of the Apes film when discussing the studio's planned releases in 2023 and 2024, Asbell was asked what was “new” with the Planet of the Apes film, he responded simply with: “We are expecting a draft very shortly, and its Wes Ball attached to direct. We hope to go by the late summer, early fall.”
While at first, this response doesn’t seem like much, it gives a lot of hope to fans. Not much has been revealed about the film since February 2020 when Ball claimed the new film wouldn’t be a reboot. After over two years of radio silence on the film, many people were beginning to wonder if it was ever going to actually happen. But now we know that the film is still under active development and is planned to start shooting this year.
This new Planet of the Apes film would just be the latest installment in one of the longest-running science fiction franchises. The whole series spawns from Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des singes (Planet of the Apes). The original 1968 film, which was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starred Charlton Heston, was an instant classic with references to the film still being relevant in popular culture today. From there spawned four direct sequel films and a short-lived live-action Tv sequel series that aired in 1974. In 1975, there was also a short-lived Saturday morning cartoon called Return to the Planet of the Apes. Then, in 2001 there was Tim Burton’s re-imagining of the original film. That was followed by a new reboot of the franchise with the critically acclaimed trilogy of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and War for the Planet of the Apes in 2011, 2014, and 2017 respectively. There has also been a number of books, comics, and video games connected to the franchise.
Again, not much is known about the story of the new film, but Ball did take to Twitter to assure fans that it would not be a reboot and “...Caesar’s legacy will continue”, referring to Andy Serkis’ ape character in the recent trilogy. Ball, who is directing and co-writing the film, is most known for directing all three installments of the Maze Runner trilogy. His co-writer, Friedman, is most known for creating Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and the Snowpiercer television series and served as a screenwriter on the upcoming Avatar 2.
Stay tuned to Collider for any further updates on this project.