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Woody Harrelson (True Detective, Zombieland) has signed on to play the villain in Matt Reeves’ upcoming film War of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Just as every Planet of the Apes movie from the 60s and 70s needed a human protagonist, this new generation of Apes films require human villains.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news, but was slim on the details about his character. Other than the fact that he will be known as “The Colonel,” we don’t yet know much more about his motivations, backstory or just what kind of threat he poses to the Apes, led once again by Andy Serkis as Caesar. We do know how the last film ended, (Spoiler from Dawn star here) with military reinforcements on their way to San Francisco. Harrelson’s character sounds like the leader of such an outfit.
As the title suggests, we expect War to ramp up the violence in the conflict between humans and apes. What began with the James Franco led-Rise of the Planet of the Apes as a thriller about the virus that killed off much of humanity and gave apes enhanced cognitive abilities has quickly become a series about the death of humanities dominant species. We’re quickly working our way toward the dystopian world of the original Planet of the Apes, in which apes are the dominant species. As to how this particular film will fit, director and co-writer Matt Reeves gave a brief update at the end of last year:
“As this story continues, we know that war is not avoided by the end of DAWN. That is going to take us into the world of what he is grappling with. Where he is going to be thrust into circumstances that he never, ever wanted to deal with, and was hoping he could avoid. And now he is right in the middle of it. The things that happen in that story test him in huge ways, in the ways in which his relationship with Koba haunts him deeply. It’s going to be an epic story. I think you’ve probably read that I sort of described it where in the first film was very much about his rise from humble beginnings to being a revolutionary. The second movie was about having to rise to the challenge of being a great leader in the most difficult of times. This is going to be the story that is going to cement his status as a seminal figure in ape history, and sort of leads to an almost biblical status. He is going to become like a mythic ape figure, like Moses.
[We want] the story to be able to connect from the human to the ape world. So first one, [Rise of the Planet of the Apes] is this sort of how [Caesar] goes from humble beginnings to becoming a revolutionary. In Dawn, he rose to the occasion of becoming a leader, a great leader in really challenging difficult times. The notion of what we’re after in the third is continue that trajectory to how he becomes the seminal figure in ape history and almost becomes sort of like an ape Moses of sorts, a kind of mythic ascension. We’re trying to play out those themes and try to explore it in this universe of exploring human nature under the guise of apes.”
Whether or not the series will go beyond three films is still up in the air, though it’s safe to assume that 20th Century Fox won’t be putting the breaks on it if it continues to be successful. With Dawn grossing just over $700 million worldwide, improving upon Rise‘s $480 million, it’s possible that this is only the start of a new dynasty of Apes films.
War of the Planet of the Apes is due in theaters July 14, 2017.
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