While franchise favorites like The Boys, Stranger Things, and The Last of Us continue to dominate the small screen, it’s fair to say that franchise fatigue is in danger of decimating the box office. In recent memory, everything from Fantastic Beasts to the DC Extended Universe, and Star Wars to Jurassic World has struggled critically and sometimes financially. 2023 was particularly tough for Disney, with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Wish, and The Marvels all failing to set the box office alight.
Things are looking brighter for the House of Mouse in 2024, as two more long-standing IPs are making their return in the form of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Deadpool & Wolverine. New directors are taking the reins of these goliaths for the first time since 2017 and 2018, and while one has a few decades on the other in terms of cinematic outings, both are poised to put butts on folding seats.
The ‘Ape’ Escape
Based on Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel La Planète des singes, The Planet of the Apes first hit our screen in 1968. The original starred Charlton Heston, some dodgy hairdos on the titular apes, and one of the most famous movie endings of all time. Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was gripped by franchise fatigue, The Planet of the Apes was churning out movies like nobody’s business.
Although Heston was reluctant to return, he came back as George Taylor for 1970’s Beneath the Planet of the Apes under the proviso his character would be killed off and his fee could be donated to charity. Heston was more than happy to step aside to let Dr. Cornelius (Roddy McDowall/David Watson) become the franchise’s MVP. 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes and the other two sequels in 20th Century Fox’s reboot era similarly focused on an ape protagonist, with Andy Serkis’ Caesar being synonymous with the series.
Following Caesar’s death in War for the Planet of the Apes and a time jump of 300 years, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is another fresh take that can still ride on the successes of what came before. Merging the old and the new, The Maze Runner’s Wes Ball is taking his cues from 56 years of Apes movies and is planning a new trilogy of Ape movies.
We’re still a way off from the ludicrous prosthetics and fully evolved apes of Tim Burton’s 2001 disaster, although Kingdom is a new Apes movie that very much feels like it’s cut from the same cloth of Rupert Wyatt and Matt Reeves’ reboot days. It’s been seven years since the credits rolled on War for the Planet of the Apes, and even though Disney teased a franchise future after it purchased Fox in 2019, we didn’t know what form it would take. Importantly, Kingdom is in a similarly lucrative place as Deadpool & Wolverine where fans are likely to tune in to see what’s changed.
February 2024’s Super Bowl trailer gave us a better look at how apes have evolved in this time, with some neat throwbacks to Franklin J. Schaffner’s 1968 classic of apes hunting humans on horseback. Still, our first looks at the movie have left plenty of intrigue, showcasing apes finding their place in the ashes of the human world. Lead actor Owen Teague tells Entertainment Weekly how Kevin Durand’s Proximus Caesar is like a hairy Thomas Edison, learning about technology. This makes the line “Apes will learn, I will learn, and I will conquer” all the more poignant.
Just as the revival series had the A-list pulling power of Gary Oldman and Woody Harrelson, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has nabbed William H. Macy and The Witcher’s Freya Allan. Whereas the revival series focused on Serkis’ Caesar, we have the feeling that Ball is flipping this on its head to make Allan’s Nova (a feral human girl) its focal point. As for the idea that the two sagas will be linked by Teague’s Noa being the descendant of Caesar, he categorically told EW this isn’t the case. Instead, Proximus Caesar has taken the name as a nod to Caesar as a “father figure” of the apes.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has the numbers to back up its potential success, and even though War was criticised as a dark way to round out the first trilogy, it made an impressive $490 million during a summer that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Transformers: The Last Knight, and The Mummy all tanked. We’re finally leaping into the era of hyper-intelligent apes we’ve been hoping for since Burton botched the nineties revival.
Still, we’re not quite sure we’re ready for 2001’s Planet of the Apex actor Paul Giamatti telling IGN, “I think it’d be great to have apes driving cars, smoking cigars.”
The claws are out in Deadpool & Wolverine
Speaking of cigars, a certain cigar-chomping mutant is back in action. While the Deadpool movies don’t have the same long-running nostalgia as Planet of the Apes, thE upcoming threequel is also looking to the past before heading forward. Notably, there’s the much-hyped return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Although the Super Bowl trailer stopped short of revealing which era of the clawed Canadian will be facing off against the Merc with a Mouth, Jackman promised SiriusXM it won’t mess with the poignant end of James Mangold’s Logan.
The X-Men movies are known for screwing with timelines (thanks Days of Future Past), and while it’s arguably benefitted the series, it’s even more confusing than the standard MCU continuity. We know there are some pretty big cameos on the way, with the trailer confirming the surprise inclusion of X2’s Aaron Stanford, aka Pyro. Set photos have also teased the return of original trilogy characters including Toad and Sabretooth, and let’s not forget that Daredevil’s Jennifer Garner is confirmed to reprise her role as Elektra Natchios …for some reason.
Closer to home, Deadpool 3 is a who’s who of returning faces from its own history, although we’re more than a little disappointed that Deadpool 2’s Zazie Beetz isn’t back as Domino. Series staples like Morena Baccarin’s Vanessa, Leslie Uggams’ Blind Al, and Rob Delaney’s fan-favorite Peter are all on the roster. There are ties to the wider MCU thanks to the return of Loki’s TVA, while Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen seems to be filling in for Owen Wilson’s Mobius as some TVA bigwig. Of course, everyone is expecting the standard Patrick Stewart cameo as Professor Charles Xavier.
There are the odd worries that Deadpool & Wolverine will be a character-stuffed outing that panders to fan service instead of actual storytelling, but with this finally looking like the movie to integrate the X-Men into the MCU, we’ve got high hopes. Also, let’s not forget the trailer’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it inclusion of what looks like Emma Corrin’s head, backing up rumors that The Crown alumni will be playing Cassandra Nova — the villainous twin sister of Professor X from the future.
In particular, Deadpool & Wolverine is off to a flying start and became the most-viewed trailer of all time by racking up 365 million views in just 24 hours. With the MCU being the way it is right now, many laughed off X-Men: First Class’ Matthew Vaughn, telling BroBible it will be a “jolt” that could ‘save’ the franchise. With Deadpool 2 and 2016’s Deadpool being the third and fourth highest-grossing R-rated movies of all time, the fact the next chapter is part of the MCU can only be good news for Disney’s bottom line. And is that Doctor Doom we see standing atop a gigantic Jack Kirby-esque mechanical thingamabob?
The future of the franchise
There’s no problem with admitting defeat, and as franchises like James Bond and Pirates of the Caribbean plan their returns, we’re bemoaning the idea that we’ll be watching Avatar movies until at least 2031. Warner Bros.’ DCU has recruited Guardians of the Galaxy legend James Gunn to oversee its own hopeful return to form, but already, a stacked Chapter One slate suggests we’ll be running before we can walk. If anything, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes could fall victim to this — pinning its hopes on a ‘new’ franchise before the first movie has even released.
At a time when Scream VII looks like it’s dead in the water, The Fast and the Furious does a U-turn on promises it would end after 10 movies, Sony continues to flog its Spider-Man-lite Venom-Verse, and we question who on Earth greenlit a Jurassic World: Dominion sequel, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Deadpool & Wolverine are here to prove that the reign of the summer franchise blockbuster is anything but over.
Based in Manchester, UK, Tom Chapman has over seven years’ experience covering everything from dragons to Demogorgons. Starting out with a stint at Movie Pilot in Berlin, Tom has since branched out to indulge his love of all things Star Wars and the MCU at Digital Spy, Den of Geek, IGN, Yahoo! and more. These days, you’ll find Tom channelling his inner Gale Weathers and ranting about how HBO did us dirty with Game of Thrones Season Eight.
