After 56 years and a landmark 10 movies, how many other franchises can say they’ve had as much of a mark on Hollywood as Planet of the Apes? We’ve had a few clunkers along the way (we’re looking at you, Tim Burton), but after 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes ushered in a new dawn, we’ve been treated to some “apesolute” masterpieces.
Although it looked like Matt Reeves’ War for the Planet of the Apes rounded off the story in 2017, Wes Ball took the reins of the Ape-Verse and welcomes a new dynasty for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Despite a jump to 300 years after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes, Ball isn’t monkeying around when it comes to honoring what’s come before. If we’ve capuchin-ed your attention, here are the 10 best Easter eggs from Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
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Nova
Alongside Owen Teague and Kevin Durand taking the leads in the ape stakes as Noa and Proxmius Caesar, it wouldn’t be an Apes movie without some downtrodden humans. This time, The Witcher’s Freya Allan plays Mae — an originally mute female whom Noa grows close to as things progress.
Raka the orangutan (Peter Macon) gives Mae the nickname of Nova, which is a nod to 1968’s original Apes movie, Tim Burton’s 2001 remake, and War for the Planet of the Apes. In the original timeline, Linda Harrison played Nova in the first movie and 1970’s Beneath the Planet of the Apes. She sadly met her end in the second movie’s glum ending, although her legacy lived on.
Lisa Marie played a very different Nova in the 2001 remake, appearing as a chimpanzee who could speak and wasn’t a fan of humans. In War for the Planet of the Apes, Amiah Miller played Nova and inadvertently spread the evolved version of Simian Flu to Colonel McCullough (Woody Harrelson). A seemingly meta joke has Raka mention how apes call them all Nova.
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Honoring the Original
More than being a continuation of the reboot trilogy, Kingdom is heavily inspired by Franklin J. Schaffner’s original Planet of the Apes. One of the big action scenes has Proximus Caesar’s apes chasing a group of humans through a stream. Alongside cinematic parallels of Mae running into the grass like Taylor (Charlton Heston) did, there are the same musical cues that Jerry Goldsmith used all those years ago.
This is far from the only wink to Schaffner’s movie, with Kingdom’s harrowing bridge scene featuring a similarly tense soundtrack and sinister scarecrows from the original. Ball directly acknowledged these ties with Den of Geek, explaining, “It just seemed like the right idea. It was a way of saying, ‘Hey, we’re making a Planet of the Apes movie here.’”
Perhaps the most obscure is the inclusion of a creepy doll when Noa, Mae, Anaya (Travis Jeffrey), and Soona (Lydia Peckham) enter the bunker. Ball told ScreenRant that the sound department used the exact same “mama” from way back when.
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Lawgiver
One of the most mysterious characters in the Ape-Verse is the Lawgiver, whose wise words are only mentioned in the first two movies. The character eventually appears in Battle for the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and bookends the movie by teaching a group of humans and apes about Caesar (no, not our Caesar).
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes opens with a flashback to Caesar’s death, seeing Andy Serkis’ mo-capped monkey being burned on a funeral pyre. This leads to a major time jump of several generations, and even though the movie doesn’t make it clear, we know it’s around 300 years. Even after all this time, Caesar’s ways are being taught, with Raka being the last member of the Order of Caesar.
Raka refers to Caesar as “lawgiver”, hammering home that he’s some biblical messiah. Given that the opening featured Maurice the orangutan, there are theories that he founded the Order of Caesar, and these ways have been passed down. With the Order of Caesar and Proximus Caesar seemingly defunct by the end of Kingdom, there are worries that Caesar’s legacy will be lost. Don’t worry, we’ve got a theory on that later.
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Caesar by Name Alone
Durand steps up as the big bad of Kingdom, with the egotistical Proximus Caesar taking the name of the reboot trilogy’s hero in name alone. The bloodthirsty bonobo shows how far we’ve come from Caesar’s days, with Proximus Caesar feeling more like Toby Kebbell’s Koba from Rise and Dawn.
Raka wears a symbol around his neck, which is repeated several times throughout. This is an Easter egg in itself, with it mirroring the window of the house where Caesar was raised by James Franco’s Will Rodman. After an enraged Raka dismisses the idea that Proximus Caesar is teaching the ways of our Caesar, it’s clear it’s more than 300 years that separate the two leaders.
We’re calling it now, but it feels like Ball is building up to the reveal that Noa is the descendant of Caesar. An impressive Reddit thread highlights how Caesar and Noa also look like they could be related, while someone else noticed how the latter’s eyes sometimes appear blue — showing possible similarities with Caesar’s son, Blue Eyes.
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Look to the Stars