A Complete History of 'Planet of the Apes'

At right around 145 minutes, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the longest entry in the entire Apes franchise. As it turns out, the film had a chance to be even longer. Director Wes Ball and the team behind Kingdom trimmed the film down to under two and a half hours, but when you factor in the deleted scenes, there was over three hours of footage that could’ve been used in the final product.

Speaking to Collider about Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Ball revealed that there were about 30-40 minutes of deleted scenes that got left on the cutting room floor.

“There’s also probably about 30 or 40 minutes of deleted scenes that [aren’t] in the movie. It was too much movie,” the directot explained. “Some of it was a shame to cut, some of it would have never worked, but all of it was great to kind of give context to the story and characters. It’s just stuff that fell away as is the endless kind of desire to make it as tight as it could possibly be. But a lot of that stuff will be on the DVD and stuff.”

Most of that footage didn’t make it through to the final stages of VFX, so a lot of it would look unfinished if you were to watch it. Ball went on to say, however, that there were a few minutes that got cut after effects were completed.

“I actually have three minutes of finished VFX that got cut,” Ball added. “We’re still debating whether or not there’s appetite to have an ‘extended cut,’ or something, with that little bit of footage.”

What Is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes About?

You can check out a description of the new film below!

“Director Wes Ball breathes new life into the global, epic franchise set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.”

The cast for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is anchored by Owen Teague (IT) as Noa, a young chimpanzee. He’s joined in the film by Kevin Durand (Locke & Key) as Proximus Caesar, a powerful chieftain that has appropriated human technology; Travis Jeffery as Anaya; Lydia Peckham as Soona, a female chimpanzee and a friend of Noa. Neil Sandilands as Koro; Peter Macon as Raka; and Freya Allan (The Witcher) as Mae, one of the few human characters to appear in the movie