‘Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes’ Director Matt Reeves Talks About The Franchise’s Future

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is officially a pretty big hit for the folks over at 20th Century Fox. Not surprisingly, fans of the long-running franchise are curious to know what’s going to happen next. Thankfully, they won’t have to wait too long to find out.

According to HitFix, Dawn director Matt Reeves is already thinking about where this incredibly epic story is headed. Instead of taking a significant leap forward through time in the next installment, the filmmaker said he wants to explore what makes Caesar (Andy Serkis) such an important figure within the story’s mythology.

The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director told The Playlist:

“I see Caesar as a seminal figure in ape history and he’s a mythic character. He’s essentially like their Moses and I think Caesar having to grapple with what it means to engage in this conflict that he doesn’t really want to be a part of and how that cuts at his core is going to be one of the great challenges for the character. I also think it’s a generational story. He has children and I think it’s going to be… to me there are many chapters of this mythic ape journey towards the original ’68 movie.”

During a chat with Slashfilm earlier this month, Reeves discussed the alternate ending that was ultimately excised from the theatrical version of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. In his opinion, this version of the conclusion took things a little too far into the next film. As a result, he decided to leave it on the editing room floor. Unfortunately, it’s unknown if this footage will find its way onto DVD or Blu-ray.

Check out his explanation below. Warning: There are spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution if you still haven’t seen Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

“[W]hat was different about the ending was that after the ending that you see in the final film, the idea was that the apes went out on a kind of exodus through the city and they gathered on the Golden Gate Bridge in order to look into the distance for the approaching warships. And I felt that it was taking us too far into the next movie. And almost starting the next movie and not letting the emotion of what had just happened, of what Caesar had just achieved and what Caesar had the price that he had paid.”

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will likely hit home video before the holiday season. The next installment of the series is tentatively scheduled for release on July 29, 2016.

[Image via 20th Century Fox]