Pre-Release Theories
Raka the orangutan in the Teaser Trailer is an ancestor of Dr. Zaius.
Alternatively or in addition, Raka is The Lawgiver
He wears a stole with symbols similar to Lawgiver's statue in the 1968 film. While they might be already standard for orangutans in the new ape society (like Caesar's window becoming the equivalent of the Christian cross), it would also make sense to introduce them in this film rather than offscreen, between installments.Nova, the mute girl from the previous movie is dead.
The young human girl who will be played by Freya Allan will be called "Mae" and not Nova, which would mean that after Caesar's death, the apes who were enslaved by Colonel McCullough and Alpha Omega would no longer see anything good in humans and Nova would have no salvation from that.- The first teaser shows a city much more ruined and covered in vegetation than anyone we've seen, hinting at a setting around 300-500+ years after the Simian Flu if the Timeline of Life After People is to be believed.
- In an interview
with Empire, the director stated that "most" of Caesar's relatives are dead - heavily implying that the time skip was only on the scale of decades, not centuries. The youngest characters in the last movie were Caesar's newborn son Cornelius, and Nova the mute human girl - so it's possible there was a time skip on the scale of ~70 years and we'll see them as elderly people.
- In an interview
The real name of Proximus Caesar is Aldo.
The missing astronauts from Rise of the Planet of the Apes will appear
The cinematography in one of the shots of the trailer is reminiscent of the reveal at the end of the original film and there is a shot of what appears to be a moss-covered telescope.- Adding onto this theory, a future apes film could be a modern day remake of the original 1968 film at some point.
- Alternately there could be a stinger with an ape looking into the telescope and seeing their ship approaching setting up the next movie to be a remake of the original.
- Adding to the theory, Mae is the astronaut. In the second trailer released her clothes are far more modern in contrast to the other feral humans. Space is emphasized heavily in the trailer and she's noted to be smarter.
Kingdom takes place after Planet of the Apes (1968)
Following the end where Taylor escapes, Dr. Zaius tries to cover up the existence of advanced, intelligent humans but it's too late. Proximus Caesar has his group search for this advanced human technology to usurp ape society. By this point, ape mythology will have conflated Koba and Col. McCullough from the previous films
Specifically, the "fact" that Caesar killed "him" after saying "You are not ape" will be invoked as a reason to wantonly kill humans, even though the real Caesar would have been against that. This movie is the new continuity's version of the 1968 film, just told from the apes's point of view
It's been long expected by fans that the franchise will eventually re-do the 1968 film, but the studio cannot replicate the impact made by the Statue of Liberty scene. So The Reveal in this film will be that Mae is actually not a version of Nova from the 1968 film, but an astronaut with the surname Taylor.- A brief shot in the Super Bowl trailer shows Mae in a modern-looking top, cargo pants, and boots. Very out of place among other humans clad in leather wraps.
Mae won't be able to speak because she'll become infected by the mutated virus infecting her
Alternatively, Mae can speak, but trailers are hiding this in order to be The Reveal
Since the official trailer has a quip between Noa and Raka about Mae being "smarter than most" of the humans, Mae doesn't want to stand out because the ability to speak makes her a target, especially when the same trailer has her being hunted down. Raka will be Evil All Along
Since the original movie had the orangutans as the villains, this movie will play with audience expectations set up by the Caesar trilogy, which had Maurice be a good guy and mentor figure in all three movies. Raka will initially be presented in a similar light as Maurice, but will be revealed to be hiding a hatred of humanity similar to Dr. Zaius. Raka's true goal is to destroy human technology, not to help humans in any way
The overall theme of the new trilogy will be how easy it is for history to repeat.
- Noa notes in the superbowl trailer that the elders did not tell him and most of the population the truth about their world. Likely, Proximus knows how Caesar rose to power and how human civilization fell; noting humanity's past thus, how he and apekind will learn from them and conquer.
- Add the shots of Proximus' faction fighting and defeating other ape tribes, and Noa's story supposedly leading up to rebelling against Proximus.
- Even the shots of the apes hunting humans will turn out to be their method of keeping humanity 'in check'; killing/capturing the ones who seem smarter (hence why Mae's targeted), because the elders are paranoid that humanity might have a chance to reclaim the earth if left alone.
Mae is Carole Stewart.
- Mae is actually Carole Stewart, the astronaut who died in the 1968 film, who left the Icarus in orbit (escape by a capsule). This will pave the way for a future film, further back in time, with Taylor during the Icarus crash.
Proximus is a descendant of Koba.
- Proximus is said to be a bonobo, not a chimp, and the only other significant bonobo in the series is Koba. And like Koba, he has twisted Caesar's ideals to fit his own agenda. Perhaps his kingdom arose from a faction of Koba's followers that grew powerful over the centuries.
Mae initially doesn't speak because of a language barrier
- The apes experienced a language drift over the past 300 years, turning the Hulk Speak English into its own derivative dialect that is only vaguely reminiscent of its ancestral tongue (and the audience hears it as English through Translation Convention). So, Mae is forced to puzzle it out by trial and error.
Mae isn’t an astronaut, she's from a small colony of humans who can still talk
- They'll be a reimagining of the mutants from Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Post-Release Theories
