William H. Macy joins Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Deadline has reported that William H. Macy has joined the cast of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the next chapter in the Apes saga from 20th Century. It’s not clear who Macy will play in the movie, but he will be a welcome addition to the franchise whether he portrays an ape or a human.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes kicked off production in Australia last October with Owen Teague (The Stand) starring as the new lead primate. In addition to Owen Teague and William H. Macy, the rest of the cast of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes includes Freya Allan (The Witcher), Peter Macon (The Orville), Eka Darville (Jessica Jones), Kevin Durand (The Strain), Travis Jeffery (Unbroken), Sara Wiseman (One Of Us Is Lying), Neil Sandilands (Sweet Tooth), Ras-Samuel Welda’abzgi (The Clearing), and Lydia Peckham (Cowboy Bebop).

Wes Ball, who directed The Maze Runner trilogy, is helming this new Planet of the Apes movie. He’s previously said that although it will chart its own course, it will still honour the original films, particularly the more recent trilogy of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and War for the Planet of the Apes.

Those last three movies are one of the great trilogies we have in modern movie history. They are just so well done. They honored the original movies they sprang from, the Charlton Heston movies, but they grounded it in a modern sensibility and it just worked. Caesar is one of the great movie characters that we’ll have throughout time. So what do you do to follow that up, right? At the same time, I wasn’t interested in doing a part four either. We want to also do our own thing.

Ball continued, saying that they “have a way of staying in the universe that was created before us, but we’re also opening ourselves up in being able to do some really cool new stuff.” Going all the way back to the original, the Planet of the Apes franchise is one of my all-time favourites, and the latest trilogy of movies just kept getting better and better, so I can’t wait to see where the next stage of the saga takes us.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will hit theaters on May 24, 2024.