Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director Wes Ball recently shared some additional details on the main hero of the story, Noa. While talking to GamesRadar, the filmmaker says that the character is compared to iconic heroes like Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings and Luke Skywalker from Star Wars.
He explained how that is the case: “Noa fits that archetype. He’s a new character we can identify with, appreciate, and respect because he’s incredibly kind and nice. But he is going to undergo this great transformation, or at least the beginnings of one in this movie, where that innocence is robbed of him a little bit.”
This film will start an all-new chapter in the Planet of the Apes saga, picking up 300 years after the conclusion of War for the Planet of the Apes. Ball previously explained that he wanted his movie to have a little bit of Star Wars in it and a younger spirit, saying:
“When I first started on it, I said, ‘I feel like Apes needs a little bit of Star Wars. It’s all still very grounded in reality, but it is essentially a quest narrative. Our main character – the young, impressionable Noa [Owen Teague] – meets characters along the way and becomes awakened as he winds up in a place that will test him, and he ultimately becomes his true self. We haven’t kiddified it, or Disneyfied it, if I’m allowed to say that! But we have brought a younger spirit to it.”
The movie is 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.”
The cast includes Owen Teague (It), Freya Allen (The Witcher), and Peter Macon (The Orville). The script for the film comes from Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds), Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), and Patrick Aison (Prey). It also co-stars Travis Jeffery (Unbroken), Neil Sandilands (Sweet Tooth), Sara Wiseman (One Of Us Is Lying), Ras-Samuel Welda’abzgi (The Clearing), Lydia Peckham (Cowboy Bebop), and Kevin Durand.
The movie is set to be released in theaters on May 24, 2024.
