Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes Trailer Spotlights Ruthless New Villain Ape

Summary

• A new trailer for
  Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
  reveals more footage of Proximus Caesar, the film’s main villain.
• Proximus Caesar has twisted Caesar’s teachings to gain power and enslave other apes.
• Villains are typically defeated in one movie in the
  Planet of the Apes
  reboot movies, suggesting Proximus Caesar is not being set up for a larger arc across multiple films.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes gets a new trailer, spotlighting the rise of a dangerous villain. Directed by Wes Ball, the upcoming film will pick up several hundred years after the end of War for the Planet of the Apes and the end of Caesar’s (Andy Serkis) story. Owen Teague leads the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes cast as Noa, a new protagonist who embarks on an epic quest with Mae (Freya Allan), a human, with the pair eventually coming up against Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), a villainous ape ruler.

As the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes release date inches closer, a new trailer shared by 20th Century Studios shows off more of the film and how Proximus Caesar will fit into the story. Check it out below:

The trailer teases Proximus Caesar as an ape keen on expanding and maintaining his power, with the character even demanding at one point, “Bend for your king!“

Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes’ New Villain Explained

How Proximus Caesar Differs From Caesar

Although Caesar died at the end of War for the Planet of the Apes, his legacy lives on in the upcoming sequel. According to official synopses, Proximus Caesar has taken Caesar’s wise teachings and twisted them to suit his own goals. The specifics of this aren’t yet clear, but Proximus is shown in trailers to be power-hungry and ruthless, and he seemingly has a security force of shock-stick-wielding apes that he uses to maintain his power and punish those who step out of line.

War for the Planet of the Apes
is currently streaming on FXNow.

Interestingly, in the latest trailer, Caesar’s symbol is shown behind Proximus as he addresses a crowd. This symbol, a circle with a four-pointed star in the middle, is a recreation of the window that Caesar looked out of in 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Instead of representing freedom for ape-kind, peace, and other tenets of Caesar’s rule, this symbol now seemingly stands for oppression and a totalitarian regime.

With each previous movie in the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy, the central villain has been defeated in only one movie, with the next then introducing a new antagonist. It’s likely that the upcoming movie will follow this same pattern, though it’s possible that the film will set up a larger storyline to come that can be explored across multiple sequels. It remains to be seen how Proximus Caesar compares to past franchise villains, but Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is shaping up to introduce some interesting new elements into the franchise.

Source: 20th Century Studios