Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is a 2024 science fiction action film directed by Wes Ball and produced by 20th Century Studios, serving as a new chapter set many generations after the events of the Caesar trilogy — the acclaimed reboot series that concluded with War for the Planet of the Apes in 2017. Rather than continuing Caesar's story directly, the film builds a new civilization where ape society has evolved into something far more complex, hierarchical, and politically stratified, offering the franchise a genuine fresh start without abandoning its thematic DNA around power, memory, and the uses of ideology.

The film follows Noa (Owen Teague), a young chimpanzee from a peaceful clan of eagle-keeping apes, whose village is destroyed by followers of Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand) — a tyrannical bonobo king who has twisted Caesar's liberationist legacy to justify conquest and dominion. Noa's journey brings him into contact with Mae (Freya Allan), a human woman with her own hidden agenda, and the wise elder orangutan Raka (Peter Macon), who carries the truest memory of what Caesar actually taught. The plot draws on the franchise's long tradition of political allegory, exploring what happens when a liberator's words are weaponized by those who claim his inheritance.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes opened in May 2024 to strong reviews and earned approximately $397 million worldwide, comfortably outperforming its production budget and greenlit a direct sequel. Critics praised Wes Ball's command of large-scale action, the impressive motion-capture performances — particularly Durand's chilling villain — and the screenplay's engagement with questions of power, history, and ideological mutation. The film was widely received as a worthy reinvention of a franchise that had seemed to reach its natural conclusion. It streams on Hulu.