Woody Harrelson has landed a key role in directorMatt Reeves’Dawn of the Planet of the Apessequel,War of the Planet of the Apes. Harrelson will square off againstAndy Serkis' Caesar as the human villain the latestApesinstallment. Plot details being kept under wraps at this point, butTHRreports that Harrelson will play a character called Colonel.
Going off of what we know about the film so far, which admittedly isn’t all that much, a villainous character called as Colonel fits right in. Most obviously because the freaking film title isWar of the Planet of the Apes. Moreover, back when Reeves was doing the promotional rounds forDawn, he told Steve that the original ending for that film went “one step further”, but was changed late in post-production before the effects were realized because he didn’t want to be “boxed in”. AsMatt previously speculated, that ending would have likely seen the onset of the war between human and apes, indicated by a shot of a warship shown in an international trailer, not seen in the final cut of the film, and Dreyfus' (Gary Oldman) warning to Malcolm (Jason Clarke) that the military was on their way.
ScreenwriterMark Bombackis returning as well, and Reeves previously teased the fact that the next film would see Caesarbecoming a Moses-type seminal figurein ape history, who leads his people through the war he fought so hard to prevent.
Harrelson is the first major player added to the cast.Last month, we reported thatGabriel Chavarriajoined the film in an undisclosed role, but THR’s latest report indicates that his part is minor.Dawndropped the entire human cast fromRise of the Planet of the Apes– a move that made sense in the context of the story – so I’m interested to see ifWarwill continue that trend.
War of the Planet of the Apesis set to arrive in theaters August 04, 2025
