Despite the fact that the film boasted a ridiculously long title, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a breath of fresh air for an irrelevant franchise. By rooting the film's story to present-day Earth, Rise somehow managed to keep a movie about an ape revolution relatively grounded. Rise wasn't a perfect film, but it was close to it: the film didn't need to shoehorn a non-sensical twist at the end (looking at you, Tim Burton), it just wanted to tell the story of how man meddling with nature can result in tragedy.
Somehow, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was just as good as the original - while it may have been overshadowed by a little film called Guardians of the Galaxy, Dawn was one of the most well-received blockbusters of 2014. Many critics claimed it was even better than its predecessor: it's rare to see any sort of sequel do so well, and few people expected that Dawn would succeed like it did.
Of course, you can't make two blockbuster films in Hollywood these days without establishing a franchise - which means that a third Planet of the Apes film is on its way. Sadly, fans know next to nothing about the third film in the rebooted trilogy, but that's about to change, as fans now know the title of the next Apes film: War of the Planet of the Apes.
The title was confirmed by Collider earlier today, though not much else is known about the film - 20th Century Fox has yet to release any sort of promotional materials. Given the ending of Dawn, it's not all that surprising - even the ending of the first film hinted at an inevitable confrontation between humanity and this new breed of apes.
It'll be interesting to see if War of the Planet of the Apes does anything to tie itself back into the original film series. After all, there's 'war' in the title, and the original 1968 version ends with an iconic twist - the revelation that humanity had doomed itself with nuclear war. It's pure speculation, but could the imminent conflict in War of the Planet of the Apes lead to the destruction seen in the 1968 version?
In all likelihood, no: the reboot series is an entirely separate entity, despite being inspired by the original films from all those years ago. It'd be great to see some sort of connection (there have been Easter eggs strewn throughout the reboots), but it's probably best to not expect any sort of concrete connection.
Either way, War of the Planet of the Apes definitely ups the ante, even if it's just a title at this point - hopefully, it'll be just as good as the films that came before it.
War of the Planet of the Apes is set to make its theatrical debut in 2017.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page!
