Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will see the sun set on James Franco’s character

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

General opinion seems to agree that James Franco was far and away the weakest link to RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, something Fox and director Matt Reeves seem to agree with as Franco has not been contacted by either party to reprise his role for the film’s upcoming sequel DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.

As per a recent interview that MTV conducted with Franco: “I was going to be a small part of the next one. There was a moment when Rupert Wyatt was going to direct the second one. A lot of the human characters that were in the first movie were dead in the sequel that Rupert was going to direct. But there was one scene, between Caesar and my character, maybe even just like on a video that was left behind, but then a lot of things happened, like [former Fox co-chairman] Tom Rothman who was a big part of the first movie, left. Now Rupert’s not a part of it so I don’t know. My guess is I won’t be in it. Nobody’s talked to me since Rupert left.”

There are many questions left to be answered regarding DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, one of them certainly being just how extensive the human involvement will be.  Andy Serkis and his fellow motion capture artists were most certainly the stars of the first film, and with the story having left off where it did it will be fascinating to see what direction Fox chooses to go with the next step of human-ape interaction.  But how do you feel about Franco being gone, if that is indeed the case? Were you a fan of the work he did, was it fine but you’d prefer fresh faces for the sequel, or was his work/presence irrelevent because it’s all about the apes to you?

You can look for DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES to arrive in theaters on May 23rd, 2014.