Empire Magazine has revealed two new covers featuring Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' protagonist Noa and the villainous Proximus Caesar.
The expectation had been that any sort of sequel to the last trilogy would pick up with Ceasar's son, but we're now jumping much further into the future where it appears the apes - who talk fully like humans - are led by one of his descendants.
Of course, "Proximus Caesar" could be some sort of ceremonial title for all we know and all signs point to Kingdom being a wholly original story that's more like a Young Adult adventure than what we saw from Rupert Wyatt and Matt Reeves. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, and we're intrigued by where this story is taking us.
Based on past experience, expect these covers to be followed by new interviews and stills (we'll bring you those the second they drop).
Director Wes Ball breathes new life into the global, epic franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar's reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows.
As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
We still haven't reached that point in the timeline the original Planet of the Apes movies took us to, though we're likely to be a little closer once this planned trilogy ends. Whether that means we'll then go full-blown sci-fi with time travel and the like remains to be seen!
Take a closer look at Empire's new Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes covers in the X posts below.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is directed by Wes Ball (The Maze Runner) and stars Owen Teague (IT), Freya Allan (The Witcher), Kevin Durand (Locke & Key), Peter Macon (Shameless), and William H. Macy (Fargo).
The screenplay is by Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds) and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Avatar: The Way of Water) and Patrick Aison (Prey), based on characters created by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver. The movie's producers include Wes Ball, Joe Hartwick, Jr. (The Maze Runner), Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Jason Reed (Mulan), with Peter Chernin (Planet of the Apes) and Jenno Topping (Ford v. Ferrari) serving as executive producers.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, a new entry in 20th Century Studios' global, epic franchise, opens exclusively in theaters on May 24, 2024.