The Planet of the Apes reboots have consistently proven successful, and it’s sounding like there’s plans for even more of them going forward.
While I haven’t seen Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which released just last week, I’m definitely quite fond of the reboot films. Sure, the first one, Rise, is a bit more of your generic 2010s blockbuster, its Matt Reeves (The Batman) directed sequels Dawn and War really are some quite good bits of filmmaking. Personally, I’m not sure if we needed Kingdom, but it’s here, and in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, it seems like franchise producers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver are certainly interested in making more.
“When you first came up with this idea, the Apes franchise way back, you saw nine movies,” Silver said while speaking to Jaffa in their THR interview. “We thought, ‘This is crazy ambitious.’ But here we are. We’re at four.” Jaffa responded saying he “saw nine. I don’t know if we’ll make it to nine. I would love it. We’ve spoken to not just [director Wes Ball, writer Josh Friedman] and [producer] Joe Hartwick Jr., but to Steve Asbell and Scott Aversano at [20th Century Studios] about what these next movies can be.”
You might be surprised to hear that the original Planet of the Apes series actually had five films in total, a number clearly born out of the success of the original. Clearly no matter the year, the general public just likes watching films about apes and humans duking it out for planet earth.
Of course, even if the Apes’ producers have been talking with Ball about more films, he’s already booked for his next project. Last year, Nintendo announced that it is making a live-action Legend of Zelda film, with, funnily enough, Sony Pictures co-financing it. Shigeru Miyaomoto will be producing the film unsurprisingly, alongside longtime Sony producer Avi Arad, with Ball on directorial duties. Kingdom has certainly done well at the box office, and has been met with a generally good response, so let’s just hope the first film outing for Link isn’t a complete disaster.