Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes Production Wraps With An Unrendered CGI Ape Celebration

The "Planet of the Apes" franchise is one of the best movie franchises ever made, and also one of the most consistent ones too — in terms of bonkers ideas taken to their best extremes if not quality alone. The original pentalogy was made out of increasingly small-budget, cheesy sci-fi B-movies that constantly tried to one-up the previous installment with ludicrous ideas and resonant themes. 

Before the "Fast & Furious" franchise started reinventing itself and introducing crazier and crazier stunts and plots with every movie, "Planet of the Apes" went from a nihilistic ending where every living thing on the planet died to following that up with a wacky comedy about talking apes in the big city, before following THAT up with a dark, thematically resonant film about a revolution that almost got an R-rating. Then, the reboot trilogy gave us the best movie trilogy of the past decade, full of pathos, game-changing VFX, and one of the best performances of the century

That trilogy ended so masterfully, with so much emotion that it was baffling that they would try and do it again. Regardless, here we are. Director Wes Ball is getting his own try at continuing the story of the planet of apes, now under Disney following their acquisition of Fox.

We don't yet know much about "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes," but we know it is a follow-up to the previous trilogy that will deal with the legacy of Caesar. With the release date getting closer and closer, we're bound to start hearing more about the movie, starting with the news that production wrapped, and our first look at, well, some unrendered CGI apes.

Director Wes Ball took to Twitter to celebrate filming wrapping up, giving us the briefest of looks at the set. Best of all, the video includes a true simian celebration, showing us a group of apes celebrating in all their unrendered CGI glory. Earlier this month we finally got the official synopsis for "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes," which teases a story set many years after the end of "War for the Planet of the Apes" at a time when humans have become feral-like, and several ape societies have risen. One of those is led by an ape who is enslaving other groups to find human technology. 

That’s a wrap! 🦍🤝💪 🎉#kingdomoftheplanetoftheapes pic.twitter.com/ZeKeXNuuod

— Wes Ball (@wesball) February 15, 2023

Now, this sounds rather fascinating, with the idea of apes fighting each other serving as a natural continuation and escalation of the themes of the reboot trilogy. But most exciting is the idea of showing us a future Earth where humans are becoming feral-like. As great as the reboot trilogy was, it completely skipped the central idea of the original film of reversing the roles of apes and humans, with the latter treated like animals who can't think or speak. To show us a world where humans are not just no longer the dominant species, but not even the smartest or most capable one hits at the core of the franchise. 

Plus, this would get us a step closer to the underground human mutants who worship the bomb that will one day destroy the planet.