War Has Begun In The First ‘War For The Planet Of The Apes’ Teaser

Reboot culture gets a lot of guff (much of it deserved), but it’s not all bad. Star Trek Beyond and Mad Max Fury Road made people care about seemingly-creatively exhausted franchises again, while Rise of the Planet of the Apes — the first non-Tim Burton Apes film since 1973’s unintentionally hilarious Battle for the Planet of the Apes — was much better than it had any right to be. And Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, released three years later, was even better. But both movies had the same problem: they were two-hour long teases, the action before the real action. It’s even right there in the titles: Rise and Dawn.

In War for the Planet of the Apes, we’ll finally get to the good stuff.

“Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel [played by Woody Harrelson]. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.”

20th Century Fox also released a “digital teaser” in conjunction with this weekend’s New York Comic-Con that shows a silhouette of Caeser formed out of ash or snow (seems pretty easy for the humans to defeat the apes if they’re made of snow). The head ape also issues a warning: “War has begun.”

War begins on July 14, 2017, when War for the Planet of the Apes is released. Hopefully it’s just monkeys shooting guns on horses for 130 minutes.