Following the success of the Maze Runner franchise, Wes Ball’s directorial expertise will now be seen in the upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes which is the 4th installment in the reboot film series of the popular franchise. He follows The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves, who helmed the 2nd and 3rd films in the series.
But Ball wasn’t initially on board when approached for the project, which would continue the legacy of Ceasar and his tribe. According to the director, the narrative had come a full circle with the trilogy that began with Rupert Wyatt’s 2011 reboot up to Reeves’ War for the Planet of the Apes in 2017. So he pitched a creative new idea for the 4th film, and thankfully, that excited the producers.
Wes Ball Was Reluctant To Enter The Popular Franchise For This Reason
There are a lot of expectations for Wes Ball’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which is set to release very soon. Apart from the narrative that deals with the intense human-ape conflict, fans are also eagerly awaiting to see the technical and visual aspects of the film that are already being hyped up.
Ball, who is known for tackling action thrillers with finesse, like his Maze Runner films, was surprisingly not on board to helm this project when Fox approached him for it. Speaking to io9 ahead of the release of the film (via Gizmodo), the filmmaker elaborated on why he felt a 4th film after a successful trilogy would be considered redundant.
“You didn’t need to continue the trilogy in a way, right? It had a perfect little beginning, middle, and end. There was no reason to go back into it. I understand people wanted to see what would happen to [Caesar’s] son and those kinds of things, but I didn’t see how you would stretch a lot of story out of that, you know what I mean?”
Balll also revealed that statistically, a 4th film in a series has not necessarily had the reputation of doing well commercially or with fans, as people were conditioned to understand that a trilogy would mark the completion of a story.
Wes Ball’s Genius Idea Initiated Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes
While Wes Ball was certain that developing further on the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy would do the franchise no favors, he also believed that some out-of-the-box thinking was needed if a 4th film had to materialize and succeed. For this, the filmmaker was clear that the story must take a completely different route to its 3 predecessors.
Ball came up with a unique solution that would put the entire focus not on the present, but in a narrative that is set many years into the future where the descendants of Ceasar played by Andy Serkis discover the hard realities about their dominance and supremacy in the world.
This idea excited the producers at Fox and led to the filmmaker stepping in to create this story. Speaking to io9 (via Gizmodo), Ball shed light upon the intricate thought that went into imagining his alternative storyline, and believed that it still seamlessly connected with the narrative of all the previous films starting from the 70s.
“The question was could I find a way to do our own thing but still not abandon the storyline [that] came before. I think we found a way to do it. Hopefully, fans will appreciate it [and] audiences who haven’t seen those movies will also still find value in it all and meaning in the story. But that was the goal for me. Can we do our own thing that was a story of its own that’s worth telling, that fits into not just the previous trilogy, but the full legacy of these movies”?.
With a lot riding on the film, May 10th will be the day of reckoning for Wes Ball and the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. If the director’s exciting vision is translated aptly onto the screen, then a blockbuster awaits.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes releases in theaters on May 10th, 2024.
