“War for the Planet of the Apes” trailer pits apes against white folks

As a Planet of the Apes superfan, I am excited beyond a doubt to see the trailer for the next installment in the modern Planet of the Apes series, War for the Planet of the Apes. I’m happy to say I’ve loved what I’ve seen.

Take a look at the trailer for yourself:

First, it’s super exciting to see Caesar back in rare form. Rarest form, I should say, since Caesar (and the other apes I’m sure) is showing much more human-like motion and much broader range with the English language. All he needs to start doing now is wearing the classic green chimpanzee suit.

Second, I’m curious about the girl. Why is she so important, and why does Caesar constantly cape for humans? I mean, I get it; I’m joking just a little. But seriously, though, why? Koba went off the rails, sure, but it’s not like he was completely wrong as to why he thought humans had no place in his ape world. I’m just saying.

(Yes, if push comes to shove in the human apocalypse at the hands of apes, I will be a traitor to my species.)

Third, Woody Harrelson looks intimidating as humanity’s last hope for survival, the unnamed colonel. Of course, Harrelson will crush this role. But this also brings me up to a gripe I have with sci-fi: the lack of prominent roles for actors of color.

Now, it’s not that I want to be at the center of an apocalyptic fight anyway, but how come humanity is still being represented as just one race? To be fair, in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, we had Frieda Pinto and David Oyelowo. In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, there was a smattering of POC extras with lines in the movie and in the main cast, there was Kirk Acavedo and Jon Eyez (as humans) and Laramie Doc Shaw and Andy Serkis (as apes)—of course, Serkis has played Caesar in all of the recent Apes films, but he’s also a POC actor covered in CGI. It’s the human casts that always bug me a little, and the human cast for War of the Planet of the Apes seems just as lacking as the previous two, if not moreso. Granted, we don’t know how important East Los High star Gabriel Chavarria’s character Preacher will be in the film, or Mercedes de la Zerda’s Lang, or Emmanuel Amadeo Badal’s soldier character. But in any event, the fight for humanity still seems like a white event with all three films featuring white male leaders (or, in James Franco’s case, the ultimate villain to humanity by creating the fateful vaccine that would facilitate the end of our world).

I write this to bring up a larger point; it would be nice if we could have a person of color be cast as the leader of humanity for once in these doggone movies. What do we have to do to get that position?

To switch gears back to the main plot of the film, it’s clear that this is the film that will act as the bridge to the original ’60s movies. Director Matt Reeves, a self-proclaimed Planet of the Apes superfan, has said in previous interviews that his plan for the films going forward is for them to link back up to the originals, and it seems like the progression will happen much more seamless than I ever thought possible. Case in point: Caesar’s second son. I figured he would be baby Cornelius, and now we have confirmation via IMDB; stunt actreess Devyn Dalton is listed as playing Cornelius.

This also makes me wonder if this just might be the last time we see Caesar. I hope not, but soon, the series will have to start following Cornelius if we’re ever to get to Taylor finding himself held captive on Earth.

Write your thoughts about War for the Planet of the Apes in the comments section after viewing the trailer. What do you think about the franchise as a whole? Give me your thoughts.

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