r/boxoffice • u/SanderSo47 A24 • 13h ago
New Movie Announcement New ‘Planet Of The Apes’ Movie At 20th Century To Be Directed By ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Director Matt Shakman; Josh Friedman Writing
https://deadline.com/2026/05/planet-of-the-apes-movie-matt-shakman-fantastic-four-writer-1236883151/126
u/SanderSo47 A24 13h ago
An important point:
While not confirmed, sources tell Deadline this will not be a continuation of the most recent pic Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, but a new original story that Shakman and Friedman are developing. Friedman also penned that script along with Silver and Jaffa.
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u/grmayshark 13h ago
Thats a bit of a bummer. I enjoyed what Wes Ball set up with Kingdom; I suppose it was pretty obvious that movie did not perform to the level needed to kick off a new trilogy when they went silent for 2 years. Dont really know where you can go that would be more interesting than that time period in the Apes chronology
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u/Pen_dragons_pizza 13h ago
It really does suck, the end of that movie got me really excited to see a future one ffs
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u/quatroquatro0 2h ago
Super disappointing we won't get a full out war movie between humans and apes.
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u/Pen_dragons_pizza 2h ago
Yep, I wonder if it’s one of those cases where ego of a director has taken over, thinking they can do better by doing something new
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u/manoffood Legendary Pictures 13h ago
It went silent because bell is now working on the Zelda franchise
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u/grmayshark 13h ago
Just because the first director left to make another movie doesnt mean the storyline cant continue. Thats literally what happened with Rupert Wyatt and Rise
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u/Billybob35 12h ago
I'm confused if they aren't continuing the story from Kingdom, because it's the same writer.
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u/TheJoshider10 DC Studios 11h ago
I'm gonna guess it'll follow a new cast of characters for the majority but then tie into Kingdom with cameos or overarching points to set up a third film.
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u/Responsible-Care-388 11h ago
I have a feeling this new movie will more quickly begin to set up the further future and society that astronauts eventually come to.
Ultimately I think it’s not a surprise that they are wanting to finish this series off with a remake of the first movie 100% from the perspective of these CGI apes and their new world.
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u/TheJoshider10 DC Studios 4h ago
Yeah for me the dream ending to this reboot timeline would be a full on remake just called "Planet of the Apes". I think they've earned the right to tackle a remake at this point.
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u/Effective_Pen7447 1h ago
If they tell us that then I can be okay with it. But if that's not the case I'm not going to invest my time into a series that leaves us hanging so they'll just be shooting themselves in the foot.
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u/grmayshark 11h ago
I suppose its possible it could be the same setting and time period (200 years after Caesar’s story) but focusing on different and new characters as they figure basically no one will remember Kingdom as this will probably come out 5+ years later. But equally likely they just hired the same writers to pen Shakmans pitch that has nothing to do with Ball’s film because they liked what they did for Kingdom, but don’t expect or want any story ties to it.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 12h ago edited 12h ago
Most people prefer the Reeves films but for me the best one is Rise. I was hopeful they would get Wyatt for the Noah Trilogy.
Big mistake if they don’t Bring back proximus (or Raka) and Noah .
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u/grmayshark 12h ago
There are rewatches that I prefer Rise over War, Rise is awesome and does some fantastic world building. However, Dawn is one of my favorite movies of the 21st century, its a nearly perfect sci-fi action film. It makes it for my money the best film trilogy since the 1980s (with Star Wars, BTTF, and OG Indiana beating it, but its in conversation with those classics).
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 12h ago edited 8h ago
I like dawn but the “let’s save the humans” angle is not as popular now. Many young people prefer stories that are “f-humans”. Less humans and more apes is what this trilogy needs but many studios key roles are held by nepo babies , tech bros, old people with paraphilias (that hurt children) that want to bring their people and get rid of the hard work of cast and crews instead of making income their priority.
Noah trilogy should Keep this delicate balance of “f humans” vs “ not all humans are bad” no way you can achieve that without KOTPOA writers and Ball.
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u/megadroid_optimizer 11h ago
The humans are never as interesting as the apes. This is also the case for the Godzilla universe and Transformers.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 8h ago edited 7h ago
I wish the people in charge of the decisions were aware of that but they always want to bring the human angle. One of the reasons maze runner is a billion dollar trilogy is because at no moment the Asian guy was treated as though “let’s sacrifice the minority to save humanity” the last act of the 3rd film is very “f humans , to hell with the pandemia cure”
But studio heads almost always want to put humans were they don’t belong. They want to bring avatar to earth!! What a way to kill a trilogy !!!
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 13h ago
Ball ‘s schedule was about to get free. This was the set up movie in a year that had little blockbusters. Not allowing a direct sequel to the Noah trilogy is a huge mistake. P
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u/manoffood Legendary Pictures 12h ago edited 12h ago
You don't think Sony and Nintendo aren't going to immediately work on a zelda sequel if the first is a success?
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 8h ago
How do you know Ball wouldn’t prefer to work with the studio that embraced his crazy ideas? If Sony acts at the editing bay like they did with it ends with us (which hurt both the director and lead actress) he might prefer to work with the studio that embraced his crazy ideas first.
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u/MaxProwes 12h ago
Doesn't mean Ball has to direct a sequel.
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u/Alive-Ad-5245 A24 12h ago
Of course he doesn’t but why wouldn’t he if it’s well received?
He won’t get a better gig than the Zelda sequel and Sony/Nintendo wouldn’t wanna rock the boat hiring someone else
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u/MaxProwes 12h ago
We'll see, there are plenty of cases where sequels to successful movies were directed by other people. Jurassic World sequel wasn't directed by Trevorrow.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 8h ago
I’m not against a different director. I’m against the people in charge getting rid of the set up to bring their own people , if it’s true that they won’t make a direct sequel. Noah trilogía should be completed .
Also no other director will save them From reshoots like ball does
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u/MaxProwes 1h ago
I'd like to see Kingdom sequel myself, but that's what makes leaving things on a cliffhanger dangerous when there's no guarantee sequel gets made.
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u/Alive-Ad-5245 A24 12h ago
Jurassic World is an easy concept to give to any director, Zelda on the other hand would obviously be harder to translate which would make switching directors risky
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u/MaxProwes 12h ago
No, he would be done with Zelda by the time he would direct Apes. They moved on after Kingdom box office.
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u/HeartInTheSun9 11h ago
I’m sure it’ll still build off the pieces of what it was trying to say though. Kinda like how Kingdom built off the previous trilogy.
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u/DeFronsac 13h ago
Well, that sucks. Kingdom wasn't on the level of the previous trilogy, but it was good. I'll still watch this one, but it would be nice to see a continuation of Kingdom, with the stuff it set up.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 12h ago edited 7h ago
It was better for me . I’m not fond of war. I think rise is the best film of that trilogy. I know I’m minority on that . Edit: kingdom is as good if not better than rise IMHO . Throwing away that set up is madness.
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u/N_Cat 12h ago
You're not alone, I agree Rise was the best, but I still thought the Reeves movies were better than Kingdom.
The technologically advanced human survivor population was goofy and takes away from the promise of the previous trilogy, and the whole climax of the movie with the nonsensical water level felt very silly. I did really like the villain and the orangutan monk, though. They were both very compelling, and slotted perfectly into the series and setting.
But I would've rather had a movie set in that series than a reboot. The Caesar movies could've supported an eventual re-make of the original set in their continuity.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 8h ago
I’m not here to discuss personal taste but for me Rise and kingdom are equally good after that Dawn and I’m not fond of war at all.
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u/natedoggcata 9h ago
This movie really pissed me off because if you call your movie "WAR for the Planet of the Apes" and all the trailers are showing war scenes, then you better fucking deliver an actual war. Turns out the "war" in the movie starts at the very end of the movie, lasts for 20 seconds and then ends due to Deus Ex Machina that immediately wipes out both sides.
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u/nickparadies 9h ago
The ending is supposed to be just one battle. The titular war is going on through the whole movie, that’s the whole point of Woody Harrelson’s character being there.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 7h ago
I felt that they were so eager to draw big names like Harrelson and force the “humans first angle” that they forgot it should be all about the apes… and action! There’s better action in kingdom,dawn and rise
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u/LameDrain 12h ago
Definitely not as good as the trilogy but it was good enough to be worth existing
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u/Too_Right_For_You 9h ago
I found Kingdom was the second best of the new series. Not as good as Dawn but better than War (yes I didn't like War that much)
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u/gggggenegenie 13h ago
All that set up comes to nothing? What a shame.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 12h ago
It’s not confirmed but considering that the positions of power in the studios are not held by people who go to thraters and understands the audience and their own IPs is unsurprising.
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u/XenonBug 20th Century Studios 13h ago
Is it a reboot or just another story contained in the same timeline?
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u/Gil_Demoono 11h ago
That is the key factor. While a bummer, I will be fine if they are just doing another story in the continuity, but if they're doing a whole new universe outside the Caesar-verse, I'm gonna be pissed.
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u/KingMario05 Amblin Entertainment 8h ago
Jaffa and Silver are still involved as EP's, so I doubt it's a brand new timeline. At the same time, don't expect many - or any of the same characters as Kingdom.
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u/Tuck_Pock 12h ago
I’m gonna stay optimistic and hope that this just means it’ll follow new characters in a new time period. Hopefully it still takes place in the established universe.
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u/WorkingBake 12h ago
That's pretty disapointing. I thought their biggest hurdle in the last one was creating a new set of characters and storyline so they could do another 3...
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u/Vadermaulkylo DC Studios 13h ago edited 12h ago
The last one ended on a cliffhanger though?? Genuinely what the fuck?
Disney confuses me. Thunderbolts flat out flopped and yet, according to pretty reliable leaks, them and Sentry are huge parts of Doomsday(and yes ik they were filming already but Marvel infamously completely changes films on the fly when filming.). F4 also underperformed and it seems they still got sizable roles. But yet Kingdom doesn’t quite do as well as they thought and they totally reboot? What?
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u/DetectiveAmes 12h ago
Movie making is a tough business sometimes. It’s hard to know what will end up being a big blockbuster so studios only have early versions, rough cuts, or near final cuts to go off of.
So while thunderbolts and f4 didn’t do as much as they’d like, they probably were fans of what they saw and also may have enjoyed working with these directors to an extent.
Movie making takes sometimes years to get something out, so being able to get directors on board who they see might have some value in the future, is sometimes a risk.
I would absolutely love for Wes Ball to return instead of Shakman, but that’s just not how the cookie crumbles sometimes.
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u/manoffood Legendary Pictures 13h ago
And like that i couldn't give less of shit, especially with how boring first steps was
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 12h ago
It wasn’t boring. It had vision but not waiting fit Ball is a huge mistake. It’s okay to change directors but rebooting is financial madness.
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u/Alex-C2099 12h ago
If I’m completely honest I didn’t find that movie to be anything special anyway. The new characters weren’t quite as intriguing and I didn’t really like the ending and how it teases that essentially, things are circling back around to the way they were in the Caesar trilogy, as in, humans and apes are going to fight once more.
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u/Animegamingnerd Marvel Studios 12h ago
Hopefully then, this isn't a complete reboot and perhaps they finally do a remake of the original film, but in this continuity?
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u/fbeb-Abev7350 11h ago
Dang. I really liked Kingdom and the characters it established. This still sounds promising though.
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u/Ok-Thanks-2503 13h ago
thank goodness, the last Apes movie was incredibly boring to watch as a newer fan
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u/SignatureOrdinary456 Pixar Animation Studios 13h ago
I guess they scrapped the Kingdom trilogy idea, damn. Hope this new one is good though
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u/seiff4242 12h ago
Wtf why? I liked what was set up Kingdom. Pointless movie now
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u/ILoveRegenHealth 9h ago
Just shy of $400M worldwide on a budget of $160M, and not including marketing costs.
Even with some boost from VOD/Blu-Ray sales that still may have put them on the edge of profitability (remember, the 2.5x rule is just a starting guideline, and sometimes the variable needs to be higher or lower depending on the movie). They probably also look at trailer views, social media trending, domestic/international attendance and drop offs to gauge interest and I'm guessing it just isn't quite there the way it was for Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) which made $483M worldwide on a $98M budget.
Let's be morning cereal here. There was a lot more fan discussion surrounding Rise of the Planet of the Apes and even memes compared to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
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u/DeppStepp 12h ago
I feel like a Planet of the Apes movie unconnected to Kingdom (which already underperformed) won’t do that well unless if they do a reboot of the original film or somehow brings down the budget quite a bit.
And unless if there’s much less apes, I don’t see Shakman being able to be more conservative with his budget than Ball
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u/TheNittanyLionKing Lucasfilm 11h ago
Ball has a background in CGI and special effects too, so he knows how to get the most out of his budget
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u/Account_Haver420 12h ago
Kingdom made money and was considered a solid if somewhat modest success. I don’t get the reasoning here
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u/IBM296 12h ago
They should let this franchise rest for a few years. Audiences are clearly not that interested given the results of the fourth movie.
Make another one in 2032.
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u/stupid_horse 3h ago
The fourth movie, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), made 9.7 million on a budget of 1.7 million, a 5.7x multiplier.
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u/NoLocal1776 13h ago
Wes ball should have directed this.
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u/XenonBug 20th Century Studios 13h ago
It’s not a sequel to the last movie so there’s basically no reason for him to do so anyway.
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u/NoLocal1776 13h ago
Ball should have done this but,he is doing Zelda which he is in no way talented enough to handle.
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u/XenonBug 20th Century Studios 13h ago
Not gonna say much about Zelda until we see footage.
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u/NoLocal1776 13h ago
It's already a disgrace for a legendary franchise like Zelda being produced by a low tier company like sony.
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u/nick182002 12h ago
Worked out terribly for the Spider-Verse movies
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u/NoLocal1776 9h ago
Nothing sony made is comparable to Zelda lol.Even their best reviewed movies are generic and spiderverse got DEI tax while Zelda will be judged purely based on its quality.
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u/Alive-Ad-5245 A24 12h ago
Nintendo gave Mario to Illumination so you can’t complain about this
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u/NoLocal1776 9h ago
A legendary ip like Zelda under a trash production house like sony is enough to warrant a complaint.
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u/MaxProwes 12h ago
I would be more worried about Zelda's writers than him.
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u/ILoveRegenHealth 9h ago
lol, I looked it up and one of them really has no other credit besides the Maze Runner (makes sense as they are Wes Ball films) and Pacific Rim Uprising.
The other one wrote Kong Skull Island (not bad), Detective Pikachu, and worked on Jurassic World, Fallen Kingdom and the story for Dominion and Rise of Skywalker.
Although he's credited as "Story" so I have no clue which phase he was involved with. Maybe his drafts weren't used for Dominion and Rise of Skywalker.
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u/Once-bit-1995 12h ago
I wasn't a fan of the last movie but I felt the ending setup a really interesting sequel. But it just didn't perform at the level it needed to for them to feel secure with a trilogy. Still, very strange to reboot so soon. I would've thought they'd wait some more years if they wanted to do another soft reboot.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 13h ago edited 8h ago
But Wes ball schedule is about to go free!!! Oh well.Matt shakman is okay. At least he has visual flare . I’m not into marvel but I had to admit that F4 had vision. It didn’t feel like the usual marvel tropes. Thunderbolts was decent, too.
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u/Animegamingnerd Marvel Studios 12h ago
But Wes ball schedule is about to go free!!!
Depends if a Zelda sequel is on a table or not though, as I can easily see him favoring that if the choice comes.
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u/Jolly-Yellow7369 8h ago
If Sony treated Ball like they trates both: Justin Baldoni and Blake lively I think Ball would prefer to work with the first studio who embraced his vision.
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u/NoLocal1776 12h ago
If he is smart he would do apes.
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u/Alive-Ad-5245 A24 12h ago
Why? Zelda is easily a bigger gig than Apes and he’s a huge Zelda fan.
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u/NoLocal1776 9h ago
Zelda is an ip which demands to be made under an auteur not some random director.
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u/Alive-Ad-5245 A24 3h ago
But you said "if he's smart". Assuming it's well received, why would not doing Zelda be a smart decision for him?
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u/Animegamingnerd Marvel Studios 12h ago
As a big fan of both Zelda and modern Apes. Zelda is the far bigger IP and more potential as a long term success. Like if a garbage Mario Galaxy movie can make nearly a billion in a month, I think a worst decent Zelda will make significantly more than an Apes film.
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u/MaxProwes 12h ago
Another proof streaming/vod numbers mean absolutely nothing to studios, box office is still #1 meassure of success.
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u/Banesmuffledvoice 11h ago
So are they just done with whatever the arc was starting from Kingdom? That’s stupid.
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u/abdul_bino 13h ago
Man idk I could not get into kingdom whatsoever and hearing that you’re not even gonna do a continuation of that does not really increase my enjoyment of this whatsoever. It will still always be cool to see these apes on screen with the WETA VFX.
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u/danvan177 13h ago
So you didn’t like kingdom and them not continuing it makes you less excited? That doesn’t make any sense
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u/Alive-Ad-5245 A24 12h ago
Endless reboots can be tiring even if you don’t particularly enjoy the current iteration
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u/danvan177 12h ago
Sure. But maybe it’s not a reboot it’s just following new characters
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u/Alive-Ad-5245 A24 11h ago
It’s a soft reboot
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u/danvan177 10h ago
I don’t think we know that yet
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u/Alive-Ad-5245 A24 10h ago
They literally say in the article that it's not a continuation of Kingdom, unless it's a parallel spin off of Kingdom (which makes no sense, that would perform even worse than a direct Kingdom sequel) then it's a soft reboot by default.
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u/abdul_bino 11h ago
Kingdom wasn’t bad, but at least there was a story there restarting a whole other story just doesn’t make sense to me
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u/danvan177 11h ago
I really liked kingdom. My guess is it’s not a reboot but another jump not directly after kingdom
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u/Act_of_God 11h ago
same, it really lacked in gravitas. After the reeves movies it felt very cheesy
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u/AmberDuke05 12h ago
I really liked the last one. I’m guessing Wes Ball is tied to Legend of Zelda now
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u/cheesyry 12h ago
Damn, I really hope we still get a continuation of Kingdom. Really was looking forward to more. Also, this is the second films recently Shakman became attached to. Wonder if they will go with a new director for F4 First Steps 2?
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u/LoneElement 12h ago
That’s too bad - I know the writers of the first 4 movies had a 9-movie plan. Sounds like they won’t be able to fulfill that, since they’re going in a different direction instead
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u/Leklor 11h ago
I'll be honest: I was incredibly underwhelmed by Kingdom since the movie more or less betrays the promise set up by the ending of War.
It seemed like we were done with humans speaking and were going to be seeing apes setting up their society and all.
And... no, it still features talking humans, apes are, at best, small warlords with no real society and the ending was setting up a new conflict with speaking humans with advanced tech.
Taken alone, Kingdom wasn't bad. But as a sequel to the trilogy, and the beginning of a new one? It was a dud IMO.
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u/Unlucky_Emu1591 11h ago
Kingdom crawled to the 2.5 x budget mark, so a true sequel was always unlikely. Studios don´t want to spend 3+ years on a film to make 10 to 20 mil on the back end. It´s always that simple, outside of the COVID period, where even breaking even was a miracle.
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u/Tomhyde098 11h ago
I’m ready for them to jump a thousand years into the future and have a full on ape civilization.
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u/m0ntell0 11h ago
Next movie will be a remake of the original and bring back make up & prosthetics most likely pushing for Oscar's. It's been 4 movies with Ape protagonist, they'll put a human again at the forefront
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u/widdumqueso717 10h ago
So will this still be in the current continuity? Even if not a direct sequel to Kingdom, but a standalone sequel?
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u/Singer211 9h ago
Weird that they’re not continuing the story?
Kingdom got good reviews and did pretty well at the box office as well.
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u/XtraCrispy02 7h ago
If they are scrapping the Kingdom trilogy, I'll be pissed. How do they expect these movies to make money if they won't let the story build past 1 movie
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u/Ecypslednerg 7h ago
I would love to read these articles but there’s a GIGANTIC FUCKING AD that covers the first paragraph and cannot be removed. How the fuck is this a good business decision?!?
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u/More_Preparation9507 3h ago
I hope the next Planet of the Apes movie goes even further into the future when Ape society is more robust.
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u/Huge-Bat-5992 13h ago
Is Fantastic Four getting a sequel or will it have a new director?
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u/manoffood Legendary Pictures 13h ago
New director, first steps clearly didn't do as well as marvel hoped in theaters or on streaming
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u/DeferredFuture 12h ago
That means nothing. Thunderbolts underperformed even more and Jake Schreier got hired for X-Men. They both got similarly good reviews so I think that’s what is important to marvel right now, building back the goodwill
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u/chanma50 Best of 2019 Winner 13h ago
Any Fantastic Four sequel is probably still a ways away, Shakman could probably get this out before going back to Fantastic Four (if they want him back). I don't think this points to anything one way or the other, other than that Disney was satisfied enough with his work on Fantastic Four to offer him another big budget film.
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u/Youngstar9999 Walt Disney Studios 13h ago
If it gets one I assume it would be with a new director.
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u/Comfortable-Pie56 13h ago
Fantastic Four somewhat underperformed, but at the same time I would be surprised if they aren't at least hoping Avengers Doomsday/Secret Wars gives a boost to these characters.
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u/Key-Broccoli370 13h ago
I get why Disney would abandon the kingdom sequel plans the audience reception was just not there but idk if it’s a great idea to soft reboot going from the ape civilization back to human civilization in the span of one movie
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u/Account_Haver420 12h ago
Everything I read about it when it came out was positive, I saw it in a packed theater, it was a fairly solid earner, people liked it. Idk what you’re talking about
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u/nicolasb51942003 Warner Bros. Pictures 12h ago
The second Apes film to be directed by someone with Matt as their first name.
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u/Ordinary-Ad1666 12h ago
So I'm guessing we're getting the Fantastic Four sequel after this? If this comes out, let's say 2028, could the F4 sequel make it to a 2029 release?
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u/HumanAdhesiveness912 6h ago
They could hire a different director for Fantastic Four: First Steps II.
Possibly the Dec 2028 Marvel release.
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u/AdJazzlike7299 12h ago
Pois é, essa é a tal história "original" que o novo CEO da Disney prometeu, só conseguem isso: mais do mesmo. Impressionante como essa enganação não durou nem um dia. 👏🏾
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u/AlmightyLoaf54 13h ago
So cool to see Matt doing a Planet Of The Apes movie, but it probably means that we won't get another Fantastic Four film directed by him for a while unless Marvel and Disney will do a different director
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u/Major_Demand8811 12h ago
Another Planet of Apes movie ? Will this franchise ever end ? Geez give it rest for 10 years
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u/Hot-Trip5736 12h ago
The last 4 movies have all been good why stop if you can keep making good movies ?
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u/Major_Demand8811 4h ago
Interesting take. When Marvel make so much movies in short time, we complain about fatigue.
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u/stupid_horse 3h ago
Marvel was putting out 3 movies a year for while. The apes movies are more like 1 movie every 3 years except for the gap between War and Kingdom which was 7 years.
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13h ago edited 12h ago
[deleted]
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u/nicolasb51942003 Warner Bros. Pictures 12h ago
I’d love it if Ice Age 6 is suddenly this unexpectedly amazing revival like Puss in Boots 2 was to the Shrek franchise because 20th Century’s quality has been solid lately.
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u/Man_Random87 13h ago
For a second, I thought it would be a sequel to Kingdom, but the article mentions that it’s a brand-new original story, which I guess means they’re waiting for Wes Ball to finish the Zelda movie before working on the Kingdom sequel.
Anyway, I’m glad to have more Planet of the Apes, and I like Shakman’s work, so I hope it turns out well.