Summary
AtSan Diego Comic-Con, Owen Teague argues that Noa should become the anti-Caesar in thePlanet of the Apesfranchise afterKingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Teague is the star of the franchise’s latest entry, playing Noa, a member of the Eagle Clan ape colony. In addition to Teague, theKingdom of the Planet of the Apescastincludes Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, and William H. Macy. The film was released in May to relatively positive reviews and is now available to watch at home.
In an interview withScreen Rantat SDCC 2024, Teague offers up an interesting perspective on his character, Noa. According to the actor, he would like to see Noa “have kind of an inverse of the Caesar arc.” While Teague admitted that he had “no idea what’s going to come,” he noted that he would like to see Noa “believe that [humans] actually need to know less.” If the character went through this process, Teague said, Noa’s ideas could be “warped throughout the next films.” Check out the full quote from Teague below:
Owen Teague: I would love to see Noa have kind of an inverse of the Caesar arc. The first movie’s literally called Rise, and [Caesar] leads the apes into this age of freedom and takes them to the promised land, if you will. And then Noa, depending on how things go with the humans, maybe comes to believe that they actually need to know less and starts leading us towards the Dr. Zaius areas of the original film.
I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but I think that the relationships with Raka and Proximus are kind of competing philosophies of how we need to treat humans and how we need to treat those who are different from us and [what we do with] knowledge. I think there’s a really interesting opportunity for Noa’s ideas to be warped throughout the next films. But I have no idea what’s going to come.
What Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes' Ending Suggests About Noa’s Arc
His Relationship With Mae Is Uncertain
Among the myriad of ideas to unpack in Teague’s statement is the idea that the first 21st centuryPlanet of the Apestrilogy — which includedRise,Dawn, andWar— has a structure thatKingdom of the Planet of the Apesis already not following. Teague points out thatRiseis “literally called Rise,” showing Caesar’s rise to power among the apes. WhileKingdomdid introduce Noa as a character and show how he interacts with others, he did not necessarily command the same type of power that Caesar did, especially given Proximus' reign.
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Theending ofKingdom of the Planet of the Apesincludes a tough conversation between Noa and Mae, the human who betrayed him earlier in the film. While they ultimately make peace, Mae’s betrayal has clearly impacted Noa’s perception of humankind, as he has been emotionally impacted by her harmful actions. She even carries a gun with her to this conversation, showing the extant friction between the two characters. In the sameComic-Coninterview, Teague was asked how much Proximus would influence Noa after Mae’s betrayal, which he answered below:
I think it depends on what happens going forward. I think Noa’s going to be struggling a lot with the angel and demon on his shoulders now, which is Raka on one side and then Proximus on the other. Which one’s the angel and which one’s the demon? I don’t know.
I think it depends on what Mae and the rest of the humans do in the future which way Noa ends up going.
This additional quote from Teague even further suggests that Noa’s relationship with Mae and the other humans is not certain. Proximus has a much more intense opinion on humanity than Noa, believing that the apes should take over and disregard humans. If the actions of “Mae and the rest of the humans” could impact how much Noa sides with Proximus, thus this could vastly change the extent to which Noa is or is not a peacemaker within the ape-human interactions. Which ape “philosophy” Noa sides with remains to be seen as the newestPlanet of the Apesfranchiseentries develop.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Cast
Set several years after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the next installment in the Apes saga. Ape clans have taken up residence in the oasis that Caesar sought to colonize, but humans have reverted to their animalistic nature in their absence. Now battling between enslavement and freedom, outliers in the Ape clans will take sides in a newly burgeoning society.
