Despite Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes just hitting theaters this weekend, audiences area already curious about what the franchise might bring next. While it has always been unclear just how many more films will be needed to tell this new story, we may have finally gotten an answer.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, the writers/producers of the last three Apes films, revealed that when they first planned out the story they envisioned a lot more than 3 films. In fact, they had a plan for closer to 3 trilogies.
That’s right. The husband/wife duo that has slowly been dominating Hollywood over the last few decades said that they imagined a story that would occupy NINE films.
“We thought, ‘This is crazy ambitious,'” Silver said. “But here we are. We’re at four.”
READ: Why The New ‘Planet of the Apes’ Trilogy Is A Modern Epic
“I don’t know if we’ll make it to nine,” Jaffa added.
He also confirmed that, while a new film has yet to be green-lit, he and Silver have spoken to Wes Ball, Josh Friedman, and 20th Century’s Steve Asbell and Scott Aversano about what the next films could be.
While it’s been 6 years since the last Apes entry, we hope that regardless of what the future holds the next one comes a bit sooner.
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Set nearly 300 years after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), Kingdom follows ape civilizations that have emerged from the oasis to which Caesar led his fellow apes, while humans have regressed into a feral state. When the ape leader, Proximus Caesar, perverts the teachings of Caesar to enslave other clans in search for last traces of human technologies, Noa, a common chimpanzee, embarks on a harrowing journey alongside a young human named Mae to determine the future for apes and humans alike.
Directed by Wes Ball from a screenplay by Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, and Patrick Aison, and produced by Joe Hartwick Jr., Jaffa, Silver, and Jason Reed. It serves as the sequel to War for the Planet of the Apes and is the fourth installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise.
The film stars Owen Teague in the lead role alongside Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy.
SOURCE: THR
