War for the Planet of the Apes star Andy Serkis has hyped this venture to titular planet of the apes, praising director Wes Ball and declaring that his sequel, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, will "blow people's minds."
Director Wes Ball explained that he was initially worried about joining the franchise, believing that a direct sequel to War for the Planet of the Apes was "unnecessary" and "unimaginative" since "it would be unfairly sort of compared to that perfect trilogy that came previously in the last 10 years." Once the director landed on the idea of jumping ahead in the timeline that's when he became more comfortable with the idea of helming the next installment. He explained "so, we came up with this idea to stay in the same universe. We're still a part of Caesar's world, but we're cutting many, many years later, after the fact, were you get to really explore what's become of Caesar, what's become of his legacy, his ideas." Ball also shared that the film essentially acts as both a sequel and a prequel, bridging the gap between the previous trilogy and the original 1968 movie. Ball explained: "we find ourselves sort of in the middle, honoring where we came from with this great reboot that happened with the Caesar trilogy, and start making our way to that '68 version where apes are talking and have democracy and all this crazy stuff. So, that was kind of the approach that we took."
Raka calls Mae Nova, stating that apes name all humans Nova. Nova was the name of the mute human adopted by Maurice in War for the Planet of the Apes. Nova is also the name of Taylor's human mate in the original 1968 Planet of the Apes.