Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: A Potential Movie Revival by Disney After 4-Year Cancellation

Get ready for an exciting update! Director Wes Ball, known for his work on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, had a passion project that unfortunately got canceled during Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019.

Get ready for an epic adventure with the highly anticipated Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. This film has the potential to reignite motivation for a previously canceled Disney movie. It will be the fourth installment of the modern rebooted franchise that began with the impressive Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011, followed by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). While two of the previous installments were directed by Matt Reeves (The Batman), the upcoming Kingdom will be helmed by Wes Ball (The Maze Runner).

Hold on to your seats, because Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes might just break tradition by not featuring Andy Serkis as Caesar, the beloved protagonist of the reboot trilogy. Disney has confirmed that Kingdom will introduce a new cast of fresh faces, including Freya Allen (The Witcher), Owen Teague (It, Bloodline), Dichen Lachman (Severance), and William H. Macy (Shameless, Fargo). With the critical success of the reboot trilogy under Matt Reeves’ direction, Wes Ball has the potential to earn more opportunities at Disney if Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes receives a positive reception.

Disney Canceled Wes Ball’s Mouse Guard Movie After The Fox Merger

20th Century Fox Merger and the Cancellation of Wes Ball’s Mouse Guard Movie

20th Century Fox Announced The Film Back in 2016

Director Wes Ball could get another shot at making his $170 million production of Mouse Guard following the success of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Disney dropped Fox’s Mouse Guard movie after it purchased and acquired 20th Century Fox in March 2019 despite Ball and his crew being just two weeks away from beginning production. Following the shocking news, Ball tried to find a new home for the project but was unsuccessful in doing so, resulting in the project being considered dead in a brutal fashion for the Maze Runner director.

In response, Ball released a 10-minute reel of what Mouse Guard could have been, which featured extensive demo footage of his creative direction for the anticipated film. Mouse Guard, which takes place in a fantastical world of medieval mice, began as a popular comic book series in 2006 written and illustrated by David Petersen. Ball had signed onto the project in October 2018 and was set to direct a cast led by Idris Elba, Andy Serkis, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster. With Serkis attached to the motion capture project, expectations were high for Ball’s Mouse Guard before it was unfortunately canceled by Disney.

Wes Ball Could Get Another Shot At Mouse Guard After Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes

Ball Is Also Attached To Direct Live-Action The Legend Of Zelda Adaptation

Although Ball was reportedly disappointed by Mouse Guard’s cancelation, the director quickly moved on to focus on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and a live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda video game series which is currently in development. Following the anticipated success of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Ball could find himself in a similar position with his Mouse Guard series through Disney at a later time. Ball is not currently attached to any additional installments of the modern Planet of the Apes reboot franchise, meaning that there could be room for another shot at Mouse Guard following The Legend of Zelda.

The potential for the new story in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is quite high considering its talented pool of screenwriters. Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver wrote the screenplays for all three of the movies in the reboot trilogy and have together written the scripts for 2015’s Jurassic World and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water. They were joined by Way of Water co-writer Josh Friedman and Prey screenwriter Patrick Aison in a collaborative effort on the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes script. It appears that Ball has been given an exceptional story to work with and should help with the critical reception of his first Planet of the Apes film.

Wes Ball’s Mouse Guard Movie Can Build On Planet Of The Apes’ Success

Ball Will Likely Have More Creative Freedom Following Kingdom’s Positive Reception

With positive momentum building for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes to become a thrilling action film in 2024, Ball has the opportunity to use the success of this blockbuster to breathe new life into his canceled Mouse Guard project. The film was already in the pre-production stage and ready to begin shooting before it was abruptly halted, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for Ball to leverage the success of Kingdom and get his passion project greenlit once again. If Ball can garner enough acclaim from Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, The Legend of Zelda, and Mouse Guard over the next decade or so, he could emerge as a prominent director in the action genre for years to come.