Planet of the Apes is an American science
fiction media franchise consisting of films,
books, television series, comics, and other
media about a world in which humans and intelligent
apes clash for control.
The franchise is based on French author Pierre
Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des singes,
translated into English as Planet of the Apes
or Monkey Planet.
Its 1968 film adaptation, Planet of the Apes,
was a critical and commercial hit, initiating
a series of sequels, tie-ins, and derivative
works.
Arthur P. Jacobs produced the first five Apes
films through APJAC Productions for distributor
20th Century Fox; since his death in 1973,
Fox has controlled the franchise.
Four sequels followed the original film from
1970 to 1973: Beneath the Planet of the Apes,
Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Conquest
of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the
Planet of the Apes.
They did not approach the critical acclaim
of the original, but were commercially successful,
spawning two television series in 1974 and
1975.
Plans for a film remake stalled in "development
hell" for over ten years before Tim Burton's
Planet of the Apes was released in 2001.
A reboot film series commenced in 2011 with
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was
followed by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
in 2014 and War for the Planet of the Apes
in 2017.
The films have grossed a total of over US$2
billion worldwide, against a combined budget
of $567.5 million.
Along with further narratives in various media,
franchise tie-ins include video games, toys
and planned theme park rides.
Planet of the Apes has received particular
attention among film critics for its treatment
of racial issues.
Cinema and cultural analysts have also explored
its Cold War and animal rights themes.
The series has influenced subsequent films,
media and art, as well as popular culture
and political discourse.
== La Planète des singes ==
The series began with French author Pierre
Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des singes.
Boulle wrote the novel in six months after
the "humanlike expressions" of gorillas at
the zoo inspired him to contemplate the relationship
between man and ape.
La Planète des singes was heavily influenced
by 18th- and 19th-century fantastical travel
narratives, especially Jonathan Swift's satirical
Gulliver's Travels.
It is one of several of Boulle's works to
use science fiction tropes and plot devices
to comment on the failings of human nature
and mankind's overreliance on technology,
though Boulle rejected the science fiction
label, instead terming his genre "social fantasy".The
novel is a satire that follows French journalist
Ulysse Mérou, who participates in a voyage
to a distant planet where speechless, animalistic
humans are hunted and enslaved by an advanced
society of apes.
The ape species are sorted into classes: the
gorillas are police and military officers,
the chimpanzees are scientists and the orangutans
are politicians.
Eventually, Mérou discovers that humans once
dominated the planet until their complacency
allowed the more industrious apes to overthrow
them.
The story's central message is that human
intelligence is not a fixed quality and could
atrophy if taken for granted.
Boulle considered the novel one of his minor
works, though it proved to be a bestseller.
British author Xan Fielding translated it
into English; it was published in the United
Kingdom as Monkey Planet and in the United
States as Planet of the Apes.
== Original film series ==
Boulle's literary agent, Allain Bernheim,
brought the novel to the attention of American
film producer Arthur P. Jacobs, who had come
to Paris looking for properties to adapt with
his new company, APJAC Productions.
To explain his interests, Jacobs would tell
agents, "I wish King Kong hadn't been made
so I could make it."
Bernheim initially approached him about a
Françoise Sagan novel, which Jacobs turned
down.
Remembering Jacobs' earlier comment about
King Kong, Bernheim mentioned La Planète
des singes, not expecting he would be interested.
However, the story intrigued Jacobs, who bought
the film rights immediately.
=== Planet of the Apes (1968) ===
After optioning the novel's film rights, Jacobs
spent over three years trying to convince
filmmakers to take on the project.
He hired a succession of artists to create
test sketches and hired veteran television
writer Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight
Zone, to pen the screenplay.
Serling's script changed elements of Boulle's
novel, introducing Cold War themes; notably,
he devised a new twist ending that revealed
the planet to be a future Earth where humans
had destroyed themselves through nuclear warfare.
Production costs were estimated at over $10
million, a risk no studio in either Hollywood
or Europe would assume.
Jacobs and associate producer Mort Abrahams
persevered and eventually persuaded Charlton
Heston to star; Heston in turn recommended
director Franklin J. Schaffner.
The team recorded a brief screen test featuring
Heston, which ultimately convinced 20th Century
Fox the film could succeed.Fox insisted on
changes to reduce the budget to a more manageable
$5.8 million.
The producers hired veteran writer Michael
Wilson, who had previously adapted Boulle's
novel The Bridge over the River Kwai, to rewrite
Serling's script.
To save on special effects costs, Wilson's
script described an ape society more primitive
than that which appeared in the novel.
The new version changed much of the plot and
dialogue, but retained the Cold War themes
and Serling's ending.
John Chambers created the makeup effects.Heston
played 20th-century American astronaut George
Taylor, who travels to a strange planet where
intelligent apes dominate mute, primitive
humans.
Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowall played the sympathetic
chimpanzees Zira and Cornelius and Linda Harrison
portrayed Taylor's love interest Nova.
Maurice Evans played the villain, orangutan
Minister of Science Dr. Zaius.
The finale, in which Taylor comes upon a ruined
Statue of Liberty and realizes he has been
on Earth all along, became the series' defining
scene and one of the most iconic images in
1960s film.
Planet of the Apes was released on February
8, 1968 and was a smash success with both
critics and audiences.
It was one of the year's 10 biggest money
makers in North America, taking in an estimated
$22 million (nearly four times its budget)
and earned rave reviews.
John Chambers received an honorary Oscar at
the 41st Academy Awards for his make-up effects,
the first ever given to a make-up artist.
Jerry Goldsmith's score and Morton Haack's
costume design also earned Oscar nominations.
Fox approached Jacobs and Abrahams about filming
a sequel.
Though they had not made the film with sequels
in mind, its success led them to consider
the prospect.
=== Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
===
Planning for the sequel, eventually titled
Beneath the Planet of the Apes, began two
months after the original film's release.
Jacobs and Abrahams considered several treatments
by Serling and Boulle, eventually rejecting
them.
In late 1968, the producers hired Paul Dehn
to write the script; he would become the primary
writer for the franchise.
Charlton Heston was uninterested in a sequel,
but agreed to shoot a few scenes if his character
was killed off and his salary was donated
to charity.
In one of many major rewrites, Dehn altered
the script to center on a new character, Brent,
played by James Franciscus.
With Shaffner unavailable, owing to his work
on Patton, the producers hired Ted Post as
director on January 8, 1969.
Post struggled with the material, especially
after the studio cut the budget to $3.4 million.The
story follows Franciscus' character, an astronaut
who, while searching for Taylor, inadvertently
follows him into the future.
After encountering the apes from the first
film, Brent finds Taylor imprisoned by a colony
of subterranean human mutants who worship
an ancient nuclear bomb.
Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans and Linda Harrison
returned as Zira, Zaius and Nova.
David Watson replaced Roddy McDowall as Cornelius,
as McDowall was unavailable due to a scheduling
conflict.
James Gregory played gorilla General Ursus
and Paul Richards played mutant leader Méndez.
The film opened on May 26, 1970.
Unlike its predecessor, Beneath was poorly
reviewed; critics typically regard it as the
worst of the Apes sequels other than the last
one, Battle for the Planet of the Apes.
Nonetheless, it was a major box office hit,
nearing the original's numbers.
Despite a conclusion depicting the planet's
nuclear destruction, Fox requested another
sequel, creating a series.
=== Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
===
Following the financial success of Beneath,
Arthur P. Jacobs recruited Paul Dehn to write
a new script with a brief telegram: "Apes
exist, sequel required."
Dehn immediately started work on what became
Escape from the Planet of the Apes.
The producers hired a new director, Don Taylor.
Fox gave the production a greatly diminished
budget of $2.5 million, which required a tight
production schedule.To work around the budget,
as well as Beneath's seemingly definitive
ending, the film took the series in a new
direction by transporting Zira (Kim Hunter)
and Cornelius (Roddy McDowall, returning to
the role after being absent from Beneath)
back in time to the contemporary United States,
reducing the need for expensive sets and ape
make-up effects.
In the film, Zira and Cornelius are initially
accepted by American society, but fears that
their child will bring about the domination
of the human race by evolved apes leads to
conflict.
Jacobs' wife, Natalie Trundy, who appeared
as a mutant in Beneath and would play the
ape Lisa in the next two sequels, was cast
as Dr. Stephanie Branton.
Bradford Dillman played Dr. Lewis Dixon, Ricardo
Montalbán played Armando and Eric Braeden
portrayed the villain, the president's science
advisor Otto Hasslein.Compared to its predecessors,
Escape dwelt more heavily on themes of racial
conflict, which became a primary focus through
the rest of the series.
The film opened on May 21, 1971, less than
a year after Beneath.
It was well received by critics.
From this point critics began seeing the films
less as independent units and more as installments
in a greater work; Cinefantastique editor
Frederick S. Clarke wrote that the burgeoning
series had "the promise of being the first
epic of filmed science fiction."
It also performed well at the box office,
though not as strongly as its predecessors.
Fox ordered a third sequel.
=== Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
===
Based on the strong positive response to Escape,
Fox ordered Conquest of the Planet of the
Apes, though it provided a comparatively low
budget of $1.7 million.
Paul Dehn returned as the scriptwriter, and
producer Jacobs hired J. Lee Thompson to direct.
Thompson had worked with Jacobs on two earlier
films as well as during the initial stages
of Planet, but scheduling conflicts had made
him unavailable during its long development
process.
For Conquest, Thompson and Dehn focused heavily
on the racial conflict theme, an ancillary
concern in the early films that became a central
focus in Escape.
In particular, Dehn associated the apes with
African-Americans and modeled the plot after
the 1966 Watts Riots and other episodes from
the Civil Rights Movement.
Roddy McDowall signed on to play Caesar, the
son of his previous character Cornelius.
Ricardo Montalban returned as Armando, while
Don Murray played Governor Breck, Severn Darden
played Kolp and Hari Rhodes played MacDonald.Following
Escape, Conquest is set in a near future where
humans have turned apes into slaves; Caesar
rises from bondage to lead an ape rebellion.
The film opened on June 30, 1972.
Reviews were mixed, but the ending left the
series open to another sequel and Conquest
was successful enough at the box office that
Fox commissioned another film.
=== Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
===
Fox approved Battle for the Planet of the
Apes with a $1.2 million budget, the lowest
of the series.
The filmmakers went into the project knowing
that it would be the end of the series.
J. Lee Thompson returned as director.
Series writer Paul Dehn submitted a treatment,
but illness forced him to leave the film before
completing the script.
The producers subsequently hired John William
Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington to
write the screenplay.
Battle continued Conquest's focus on racial
conflict and domination but, likely based
in part on the studio's wishes, the Corringtons
discarded Dehn's pessimistic treatment in
favor of a story with a more hopeful, though
ambiguous, resolution.Battle follows Caesar
as he leads the apes and their human subjects
after a devastating war that destroyed much
of the planet.
He contends with both an attack by radiation-scarred
human mutants and a coup attempt as he attempts
to build a better society for both apes and
humans.
McDowall returned as Caesar and Severn Darden
returned as Kolp.
Paul Williams played the orangutan Virgil,
Austin Stoker played MacDonald (the brother
of Hari Rhodes' character) and Claude Akins
played the evil gorilla general Aldo.
John Huston played the orangutan Lawgiver
in a frame narrative.
The film opened on May 2, 1973.
It made a profit over production costs, but
received poor reviews from critics, who regard
it as the weakest of the five films.Critics
have offered various interpretations of the
film's message and its significance for the
series.
Particular attention has been paid to the
ambiguous imagery in the ending: set over
700 years after the main events, the last
scene depicts a statue of Caesar shedding
a single tear as the Lawgiver recounts Caesar's
story to an integrated audience of ape and
human children.
By one interpretation, the statue cries tears
of joy because the species have broken the
cycle of oppression, giving the series an
optimistic finale.
By another, the statue weeps because racial
strife still exists, implying the dystopian
future of Planet and Beneath is unavoidable.
== Television series ==
=== 
Planet of the Apes TV series ===
As well as their profitable returns at the
box office, the films earned very high ratings
on television after their theatrical runs.
To capitalize on this success, Arthur P. Jacobs
conceived of an hour-long live action television
series to follow the films.
He first had the idea in 1971 during the production
of Conquest, which he then anticipated would
be the final film, but he shelved the project
once Fox ordered a fifth installment.
Jacobs died on June 27, 1973, bringing an
end to the APJAC Productions era of the Planet
of the Apes franchise.
Former Fox executive Stan Hough took over
as producer for the television project, titled
Planet of the Apes.
CBS picked up the series for its 1974 autumn
lineup.Ron Harper and James Naughton played
Alan Virdon and Peter Burke, two 20th-century
American astronauts who pass through a time
warp to a future where apes subjugate humans
(unlike the original film, the humans can
speak).
Roddy McDowall returned to the franchise as
Galen, a chimpanzee who joins the astronauts.
Booth Coleman played orangutan Councillor
Zaius and Mark Lenard played gorilla General
Urko.
The episodes portray Virdon, Burke, and Galen
as they search for a way home, aid downtrodden
humans and apes and avoid the authorities.
The show premiered on September 13, 1974,
filling CBS's 8–9 p.m. time slot on Fridays.
It earned low ratings during its run, a fact
the production team attributed to repetitive
storytelling and too little screen time for
the apes who made the franchise famous.
Given the considerable production costs, CBS
cancelled the show after 14 episodes, the
last airing on December 20, 1974.In 1981,
Fox reedited ten of the episodes into five
television films.
Each film combined two episodes and (in some
markets) added new introductory and concluding
segments starring McDowall as an aged Galen.
The films were given what scholar Eric Greene
calls "the most outlandish titles of the Apes
corpus": Back to the Planet of the Apes; Forgotten
City of the Planet of the Apes; Treachery
and Greed on the Planet of the Apes; Life,
Liberty and Pursuit on the Planet of the Apes;
and Farewell to the Planet of the Apes.Greene
finds the show's position in the Apes timeline
significant: set in 3085, it occurs about
900 years before Taylor's crash in the original
film and 400 years after the Lawgiver's sermon
in Battle.
By depicting a future where apes dominate
humans, it implies the Lawgiver's message
of equality between man and ape has failed,
giving weight to the more pessimistic interpretation
of Battle's ending.
Greene argues that the show emphasized the
theme of racial conflict less than the films
had, though the episodes "The Trap" and "The
Liberator" made it a central focus.
=== Animated series ===
In 1975, after the failure of the live-action
series, NBC and 20th Century Fox agreed to
adapt Planet of the Apes for an animated series.
The network contracted DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
to produce a half-hour Saturday-morning cartoon
titled Return to the Planet of the Apes.
Doug Wildey, co-creator of Jonny Quest, took
on most creative control as associate producer,
storyboard director and supervising director.
Wildey had only watched the original film
and Beneath and thus based his interpretation
on them.
As such, the show relied less on the themes
and plot developments from Escape, Conquest
and Battle and instead returned to the Vietnam
War and Cold War themes prominent in the first
two films.The plot concerns three American
astronauts, Bill Hudson (Tom Williams), Jeff
Allen (Austin Stoker, who played MacDonald
in Battle) and Judy Franklin (Claudette Nevins),
who inadvertently journey to Earth's far future.
They find the world populated by three groups:
mute humans who inhabit desert caves, subterranean
human "Underdwellers" fashioned after the
mutants of Beneath and civilized apes who
subjugate the humans.
Through the show, the astronauts become increasingly
involved in the planet's affairs and in defending
the humans against an ape invasion.
The cast featured characters based on those
from the previous films and TV series, including
Nova (Nevins again), General Urko (Henry Cordin),
Zira (Philippa Harris), Cornelius (Edwin Mills)
and Dr. Zaius (Richard Blackburn).
NBC broadcast 13 episodes between September
6 and November 29, 1975.
The show did not achieve particularly strong
ratings.
The network considered producing a second
three-episode season to complete the story,
but this never materialized.
== Remake film ==
=== 
Planned relaunch and development hell ===
Fox initiated plans to relaunch the Planet
of the Apes series in the 1980s, but the project
fell into a drawn-out and fruitless development
phase—"development hell"—for over 10 years,
one of the most protracted development periods
in film history.
It began in 1988, when Fox announced that
Adam Rifkin, then a 21-year-old independent
film director, would develop a new Apes movie.
At a Fox executive's invitation, Rifkin pitched
a concept for Return to the Planet of the
Apes, an alternative sequel to Planet that
ignored the other four films.
In Rifkin's initial concept, Taylor's descendant
Duke launches a Spartacus-like uprising against
Roman-inspired ape oppressors led by General
Izan.
Days before the project was scheduled to enter
pre-production, Fox brought in new studio
executives, who sent it back to development.
They commissioned Rifkin to write several
redrafts, but found them unsatisfactory and
ultimately scrapped the project.After several
years in limbo, Fox returned to the Apes concept,
this time with Oliver Stone as a producer.
Stone brought in Terry Hayes as screenwriter
and they developed a script titled Return
of the Apes.
In their script, humanity is threatened by
an ailment encoded in their DNA, so two scientists
go back in time thousands of years to stop
it at its origin.
They discover the disease was engineered by
advanced apes to ensure humanity's eventual
destruction.
Arnold Schwarzenegger committed to star as
scientist Will Robinson and Philip Noyce agreed
to direct.
The draft impressed Fox president Peter Chernin,
but other executives were ambivalent about
the action script, believing that it should
be lighter.
At one point, executive Dylan Sellers insisted
the script include a comic scene involving
apes playing baseball as his "stamp" on the
film and fired Hayes when he left it out.
This move caused Noyce to quit as well, and
subsequently almost everyone involved in the
project left for one reason or another.After
the collapse of the Stone-Hayes project, Fox
brought on Chris Columbus to develop a new
Apes concept.
Columbus hired Sam Hamm to write a screenplay
taking elements from Boulle's novel and various
unused treatments.
In Hamm's script, an ape astronaut from a
distant planet unleashes a devastating virus
on Earth.
Scientists go to the astronaut's planet, where
apes hunt humans; they locate a cure, but
return to find Earth overrun by simians.
Schwarzenegger remained attached, but Fox
found the script underwhelming.
Columbus left the project in 1995 after his
mother's death and James Cameron stepped in
to produce.
Cameron intended to go in a "very different
direction" with the script, but following
the critical and financial success of his
film Titanic, he dropped out of the project.
Fox approached a series of directors to take
over, without success.
=== Planet of the Apes (2001) ===
In 1999, Fox hired William Broyles, Jr. to
write a new script.
Fox insisted on a July 2001 release date,
but otherwise offered Broyles considerable
creative license.
This prospect attracted director Tim Burton,
who hoped to do a "re-imagining" of Planet
of the Apes. Burton found the production arduous,
largely due to Fox's strict release schedule.
The studio budgeted the film at $100 million,
meaning Broyles' ambitious script had to be
altered to reduce costs; Lawrence Konner and
Mark Rosenthal worked on rewrites even as
the film entered production.
The tight schedule meant that all stages of
production were rushed.The film stars Mark
Wahlberg as astronaut Leo Davidson, who accidentally
travels through a wormhole to a distant planet
where talking apes enslave humans.
He leads a human revolt and upends ape civilization
by discovering that the apes evolved from
the normal Earth primates who had accompanied
his mission and had arrived on the planet
years before.
Helena Bonham Carter played chimpanzee Ari,
while Tim Roth played the human-hating chimpanzee
General Thade.
The film received mixed reviews; most critics
believed it failed to compare to the original.
Much of the negative commentary focused on
the confusing plot and twist ending, though
many reviewers praised the special effects.
The film succeeded at the box office, taking
in $362 million worldwide.
Fox had initially hoped for a sequel, but
the difficult production left Burton unenthusiastic
about participating, and the film failed to
generate enough interest for the studio to
pursue a follow-up.
== Reboot film series ==
=== 
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) ===
In 2005, screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda
Silver developed a concept for a new Planet
of the Apes film, eventually titled Rise of
the Planet of the Apes.
Inspired by news articles on apes raised as
humans and advances in genetics, Jaffa conceived
an idea for a film about a genetically enhanced
chimp raised in a human household.
He and Silver pitched the concept to Fox as
a way to reboot the Apes franchise by reinventing
the story of the chimpanzee Caesar, the lead
character of Conquest and Battle.
Fox was impressed and bought the pitch, but
development struggled for five years as the
production cycled through scripts, writers,
directors and producers.
In 2010, producers Peter Chernin and Dylan
Clark of Chernin Entertainment stepped in
to move the film forward, retaining Jaffa
and Silver as writers.In the final script,
Caesar receives enhanced cognition from a
viral drug created by Will Rodman, who raises
him.
After being imprisoned in a primate sanctuary,
Caesar uses his ingenuity to launch an uprising.
The screenplay contains complex connections
to other entries in the series, causing some
confusion as to its exact relation to them.
Oliver Lindler writes that while the film's
premise might identify it as a remake of Conquest,
official dispatches and professional reviewers
typically avoided the term, instead calling
the film a prequel or "origin story" to the
original Planet of the Apes film and/or a
reboot of the series; fans and bloggers were
more apt to refer to it as a "remake".
The completed script attracted director Rupert
Wyatt.
To portray ape characters realistically, the
production avoided practical effects in favor
of performance capture acting, partnering
with New Zealand visual effects company Weta
Digital.
Wyatt cast James Franco as Will Rodman, while
veteran performance capture actor Andy Serkis
signed on to star as Caesar.Rise debuted on
August 5, 2011.
Critics reviewed it positively, especially
praising the visual effects and Serkis' performance.
It was a major box office hit, taking in $482
million globally, more than five times its
$93 million budget.
Weta's special effects earned the film two
Visual Effects Society Awards and an Oscar
nomination at the 84th Academy Awards, among
other accolades.
The strength of Serkis' performance also inspired
Fox to promote him for Oscar consideration;
he was not nominated by Academy voters.
Following the movie's success, Fox immediately
planned for a sequel.
=== Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
===
Producers Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark started
planning the film eventually titled Dawn of
the Planet of the Apes just after Rise's release
in 2011.
Fox allocated a budget of $170 million.
Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver returned to pen
the script and produce and the studio quickly
signed Andy Serkis to reprise his role as
Caesar.
Director Rupert Wyatt withdrew from the project
due to production and scheduling issues and
was replaced by Matt Reeves.Set 10 years after
Rise, the film establishes that the "simian
flu", a side effect of the drug that enhanced
the Ape's intelligence, has killed most humans.
Caesar struggles to maintain peace as his
ape community is drawn into violent clashes
with nearby human survivors.
Weta Digital again provided special effects
work, which combined practical sets, digitally
manipulated backgrounds and performance capture
ape characters.
The lead human characters were played by Jason
Clarke, as Malcolm; Keri Russell, as Ellie;
and Gary Oldman, as Dreyfus.
Released on July 11, 2014, the film was very
well received by critics, who found it a strong
follow-up to Rise and lauded the combination
of an engaging script with impressive special
effects.
It also performed very strongly at the box
office, taking in $707 million in worldwide
grosses.
Its special effects received several honors,
including three Visual Effects Society Awards
and an Oscar nomination at the 87th Academy
Awards.
=== War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
===
Fox was confident enough in Dawn of the Planet
of the Apes that the studio started planning
for the next installment months before the
film debuted.
After Fox and Chernin Entertainment screened
Matt Reeves' cut of Dawn, he was contracted
to return as director; he also wrote the script
with Mark Bomback.
Peter Chernin, Dylan Clark, Rick Jaffa and
Amanda Silver again served as producers.
Given a $150 million budget, War for the Planet
of the Apes was released on July 14, 2017.The
film depicts the apes and humans in armed
conflict and follows Caesar and his followers
as they track down the mysterious Colonel,
a human paramilitary leader, and search for
a new home.
Serkis returned as Caesar, Woody Harrelson
played the villainous Colonel and Steve Zahn
played Bad Ape.
It earned widespread critical acclaim; reviewers
praised the effects and narrative and found
the film a fitting conclusion to Caesar's
story.
It earned $491 million around the globe.
=== Future ===
In October 2016, it was reported that a fourth
film in the new series was being discussed.
Shortly before the release of War in July
2017, Reeves said that he expressed interest
in making more Apes films and that Steve Zahn,
who played Bad Ape in the film, had set up
a story for further sequels.
Writer Mark Bomback hinted that further films
would be possible.
In April 2019, following the acquisition of
21st Century Fox by Disney, Fox announced
that future Planet of the Apes films are in
development.
== Other media and merchandise ==
=== 
Books ===
Pierre Boulle's novel La Planète des singes
was translated and reprinted several times
after its original publication in 1963.
All of the original sequels spawned novelizations
by established science fiction writers of
the day, each of which went through multiple
reprintings of their own.
Michael Avallone wrote the novelization for
Beneath the Planet of the Apes in 1970.
Jerry Pournelle, who later co-authored Lucifer's
Hammer and The Mote in God's Eye, wrote the
Escape from the Planet of the Apes novelization.
John Jakes, former Science Fiction Writers
of America president, wrote Conquest of the
Planet of the Apes.
David Gerrold, scriptwriter for the Star Trek
episode "The Trouble with Tribbles", novelized
Battle for the Planet of the Apes.
Novelizations of the live action and animated
television series were also produced.
William T. Quick novelized the 2001 Planet
of the Apes; he also wrote two prequel novels,
and several other book tie-ins were published.
=== Comics ===
Planet of the Apes–based comics have been
published regularly since 1968.
Among the most notable is Marvel Comics' Planet
of the Apes magazine, published from 1974
to 1977.
The black-and-white series featured adaptations
of each of the films, new Apes stories by
Doug Moench, series news, essays, interviews,
and other material.
It became one of Marvel's most successful
titles, attracting 300 to 400 fan letters
with every issue, so many that the studio
had to suspend its practice of writing personal
responses.
Marvel also published the monthly title Adventures
on the Planet of the Apes from 1975 to 1976,
comprising color reprints of the Planet and
Beneath adaptations.In 1990, during a resurgence
of interest in the franchise, Malibu Comics
launched a new monthly black-and-white Planet
of the Apes comic through its Adventure Comics
studio.
The debut issue sold 40,000 copies, a record
for black-and-white comics, leading to a successful
run of 24 issues over two years.
The series follows Caesar's grandson and heir
Alexander as he struggles to govern ape civilization.
The comic's success led Malibu to publish
five four-issue spinoff miniseries: Ape City,
Planet of the Apes: Urchak's Folly, the Alien
Nation crossover Ape Nation, Planet of the
Apes: Blood of the Apes and Planet of the
Apes: The Forbidden Zone.
Malibu also published two one-shot comics,
A Day on the Planet of the Apes and Planet
of the Apes: Sins of the Fathers, a prequel
story to the original film; a trade paperback
collecting the first four issues of the main
series, titled Monkey Planet; and reissues
of stories from Marvel's earlier Apes series.Gold
Key Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and Boom!
Studios have also produced Planet of the Apes
comic books.
The Boom! releases include crossovers with
other properties: 2014's Star Trek/Planet
of the Apes: The Primate Directive and 2017's
King Kong story Kong on the Planet of the
Apes.
In 2018, Boom! released a graphic novel, Planet
of the Apes: Visionaries, adapted by Dana
Gould and Chad Lewis from the original 1968
film's unused screenplay by Rod Serling.
=== Toys and merchandise ===
The series, and particularly the live-action
Apes television show and the Return to the
Planet of the Apes cartoon, generated numerous
toy and merchandising tie-ins.
During the 1970s, Fox licensed around 60 companies
to produce about 300 different Apes products,
including action figures and playsets, model
building kits, coloring books, book-and-record
sets, trading cards, toy weapons, costumes,
apparel, branded tableware, and lunch boxes.
This level of merchandising was unusual for
the time and the success of Apes merchandise
may have inspired the campaigns that later
became commonplace for films and television
series.
The action figures, sold by Mego beginning
in 1973, were the first such toys sold as
film tie-ins; they proved popular and inspired
the rise of action figure series based on
popular culture franchises.
Eric Greene writes that Apes toys were popular
enough to lead some contemporary children
to engage in apes-vs.-humans role-playing
make believe games that simulated the series'
conflicts in a manner similar to "Cowboys
and Indians".
With the release of the 21st-century films,
Fox licensed several companies to manufacture
new Apes toys, including detailed action figures
of new and "classic" characters sold as collectibles.
=== Theme park ride ===
A Planet of the Apes ride is planned for the
20th Century Fox World theme parks under construction
in Dubai and Malaysia.
=== Video games ===
In 1983, 20th Century Fox Videogames developed
a Planet of the Apes game for the Atari 2600,
which was to be the first computer game based
on the series.
The game was still in the prototype phase
when Fox shuttered its game division during
the video game crash of 1983 and never saw
release.
It was assumed lost until 2002, when collectors
identified a prototype, found earlier in a
case labeled Alligator People, as the missing
Apes game.
Independent designers Retrodesign completed
and released the game as Revenge of the Apes
in 2003.
In the game, the player controls Taylor as
he fights apes across several levels inspired
by the film to reach the Statue of Liberty.A
video game based on the series did not appear
until 2001.
Fox Interactive began developing a Planet
of the Apes game in 1998 for PC and PlayStation
as a tie-in to the long-gestating remake project.
Fox and developer Visiware proceeded with
the game when the project went into limbo,
creating their own story based on Boulle's
novel and the original films.
The game is an action-adventure in which players
control astronaut Ulysses as he explores an
ape-ruled future Earth.
Fox Interactive's decision to co-publish with
another company, Ubisoft, further delayed
the game's release.
Despite its long development, the game missed
the debut of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes
film by two months; it finally appeared on
September 20, 2001, to mostly negative reviews.
Additionally, Ubisoft produced a substantially
different Planet of the Apes game for Game
Boy Advance and Game Boy Color, a side-scroller
following the first two films.In 2014, Fox
partnered with Ndemic Creations on a substantial
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes–themed update
to the mobile game Plague Inc.
Players create and spread a "simian flu" virus
to eradicate humans while helping apes survive.
In 2017, Fox commissioned an adventure game
to accompany War for the Planet of the Apes
called Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier.
Andy Serkis' digital effects company The Imaginarium
worked on the game and Serkis performed motion
capture.
It was released on PlayStation 4 on November
21, 2017 to mixed reviews.
In 2018, Fox's virtual reality division FoxNext
VR Studio partnered with developers Imaginati
Studios on a VR first-person shooter, Crisis
on the Planet of the Apes.
The player controls a chimpanzee attempting
to escape a human detention facility.
It was released on PC and PlayStation 4, receiving
negative to average reviews.
== Themes ==
=== Race ===
Critics consider race to be the Planet of
the Apes series' primary theme.
Eric Greene, author of a book on the role
of race in the original films and spinoff
material, writes that "when seen as one epic
work, the Apes saga emerges as a liberal allegory
of racial conflict."
In Greene's interpretation, the franchise's
plot arc is rooted in the central conflict
in which humans and apes alternately subjugate
one another in a destructive cycle.
Difference between human and ape manifests
primarily in physical appearance, and dominance
derives from social power rather than innate
superiority.
Each film shifts the power balance so that
the audience identifies sometimes with the
humans and at other times with the apes.
According to Greene, this arc's central message
is that unresolved racial discord inevitably
leads to cataclysm.
Other critics have adopted or echoed Greene's
interpretation.
Producers Abrahams and Jacobs did not consciously
intend the first film's racial undertones
and did not appreciate them until Sammy Davis
Jr. pointed them out in 1968.
Subsequently, the filmmakers incorporated
the theme more overtly in later installments;
as a result, race moves from being a secondary
motif in the first two films to becoming the
major concern of the last three.Several critics
have written that the reboot films downplay
this theme from the original series, removing
the racial subtext of conflict between humans
and apes.
These critics generally argue that this is
to the films' detriment, writing that it softens
the series' edge, leaves it thematically shallow,
and marginalizes non-white characters; several
critics have written that the films appear
to invoke a "post-racial America", rather
than exploring issues of race.
Others write that the films incorporate racial
themes in subtler ways, but that their presentation
oversimplifies a complex message to the point
of reinforcing racial norms rather than challenging
them.
=== Cold War and nuclear apocalypse ===
The Cold War and the threat of nuclear holocaust
are major themes introduced in Rod Serling's
original Planet of the Apes script.
The films are apocalyptic and dystopian, suggesting
the era's tensions could well lead to world
destruction.
The films critique both sides of the war,
with the oppressive ape society and the underground
mutant city featuring traits of both Western
culture and the Soviet bloc.
According to Greene, Cold War motifs were
central to the first two films and some spinoff
media, but were less significant in the later
sequels, which foregrounded racial conflict
instead.
=== Animal rights ===
Questions of animal rights also figure heavily
in the series; Greene considers this related
to the racial themes.
The first film portrays Taylor treated cruelly
by apes who consider him an animal; in later
films, humans abuse apes for the same reason.
The idea of primate rights is much more dominant
in the reboot films, which directly invoke
the question of great ape personhood in portraying
Caesar and his followers struggling for their
rights in a society that does not consider
them legal persons.
== Cultural impact and legacy ==
Planet of the Apes received popular and critical
attention well after production ended on the
original films and television series.
Fans' interest in the franchise continued
through publications like Marvel Comics' Planet
of the Apes magazine and science fiction conventions,
where the series was sufficiently popular
to inspire "apecons"—conventions devoted
entirely to films involving apes—in the
1970s.
The series' distinctive ape costumes were
employed in live appearances, including by
musician Paul Williams (Virgil from Battle)
on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
and by Mike Douglas on The Mike Douglas Show.
In the 1970s, fans Bill Blake and Paula Crist
created Cornelius and Zira costumes; their
routine was convincing enough that Fox licensed
them to portray the characters at events.
The films earned strong ratings when they
aired on television after their releases and
various stations rebroadcast them together
in marathons in later years.
The live-action television series was reformatted
into five TV movies for further broadcast
in 1981and the Sci-Fi Channel ran both it
and the cartoon series in the 1990s.Planet
of the Apes had a wide impact on subsequent
popular media.
In terms of production, the series' success
with sequelization, spinoffs and merchandising
established a new model of media franchising
in Hollywood filmmaking, in which studios
develop films specifically to generate multimedia
franchises.
In terms of content, the series influenced
various films and television productions during
the 1970s and 1980s that used science fiction
settings and characters to explore race relations,
including Alien Nation, Enemy Mine, and V.
More direct influence can be seen in DC Comics'
1972–1978 series Kamandi: The Last Boy on
Earth and the Japanese franchise Time of the
Apes, which concern human protagonists in
post-apocalyptic worlds ruled by talking animals.
Mel Brooks' 1987 science fiction spoof Spaceballs
lampooned the original Planet's Statue of
Liberty ending.Interest in the series resurged
in the 1990s, as plans for a new film and
other media circulated.
Greene attributes this renewed interest to
a combination of "pop culture nostalgia and
baby boomer economics", as well as a "political
ferment" rising at the time that hearkened
back to the period when the films were first
released.
Inspired particularly by the publication of
the Malibu Comics series, during this period
fans founded new clubs, websites, and fanzines
active in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and other
countries.
Companies began producing new branded merchandise,
including clothing, toys, and costumes.Especially
after the 1990s, artists in diverse media
referenced, incorporated, or were otherwise
influenced by the series.
Planet of the Apes turned up in songs by various
musicians, allusions in films, comedy bits
by Dennis Miller and Paul Mooney, and an episode
of Saturday Night Live hosted by Charlton
Heston.
The Simpsons parodied the series several times.
In particular, the episode "A Fish Called
Selma" features the washed-up actor Troy McClure
starring in a Broadway musical adaptation
called Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want
to Get Off!
Artist Martha Rosler incorporated footage
of Cornelius and Zira's interrogation from
Escape in her installation "Global Taste:
A Meal in Three Courses", while Guillermo
Gómez-Peña and Coco Fusco employed video
from Planet in a 1993 performance art piece
at the Whitney Museum of American Art.The
series' impact has extended to the political
sphere, and groups of various leanings have
employed its themes and imagery in their discourse.
The phrase "planet of the apes" has been used
for an overturning of the political or racial
status quo.
Eric Greene writes that it is especially popular
among racial nationalists and reactionaries
of different stripes.
According to Greene, white supremacists liken
minority advancement to the films' world in
which supposed "inferiors" seize control,
while black nationalists subvert the reference
to celebrate the "racial apocalypse"; in this
spirit, gangsta rap group Da Lench Mob titled
their 1994 album Planet of da Apes.
Greene writes that these uses invert the anti-racist
message of the films.
Planet's final image of the ruined Statue
of Liberty has become a common political reference;
for example, Greenpeace used it in an advertising
campaign against nuclear testing.
The series' themes and imagery have been invoked
in political discussions on topics as varied
as Sixties culture, urban decay, contemporary
wars, and gun violence.
== List of media ==
=== 
Feature films ===
== 
Reception ==
=== 
Box office performance ===
=== 
Critical and public response ===
=== 
Accolades ===
==== 
Academy Awards ====
== Characters ==
The following table shows the cast members
who played the primary characters in the nine
films to date.
Note: A grey cell indicates the character
does not appear in that film.
== Crew and other ==
== 
Footnotes
