A new era is at hand on planet Earth. The age of humanity has run its course, and now, it is time for the dominion of apekind. On May 10, the anticipation for the next installment in the Apes franchise, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, will reach a fever pitch as the film makes its debut. As part of the promotional push for the film, a new Dolby poster has been revealed.

Directed by Wes Ball, the film follows a young ape, Noa (Owen Teague), who will ultimately chart a new course for the future of apekind and humanity. Noa’s transformative journey sees him question what he thinks he knows about history, as he travels alongside Freya Allan‘s Mae, a young woman with a mysterious past. Noa’s adventures will ultimately see him confront the apekind’s new leader, Proximus Caesar, portrayed by Kevin Durand, who seeks to advance his species at the expense of those who came before.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will serve as a sequel to the 2010s Planet of the Apes trilogy and is set some 300 years after the events depicted in the War for the Planet of the Apes. While Ball aims to continually pay homage to the spirit of the trilogy, the director is aware that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes must chart its own course as well. While the film will introduce us to a free-spirited Noa, it does so while under the memory of Andy Serkis‘s performance as Caesar, and his incredible sacrifice in War for the Planet of the Apes.

The spirit of Caesar will be evident in the film, looming over its main protagonists in Noa and Proximus Caesar — Serkis has helped prepare the actors for their roles, given his impressive performance as the foremost leader of apekind. The challenge before Kingdom is enormous, and aside from scrutiny of on-screen performances, the massive success garnered by the original trilogy, both critically and financially, presents a difficult standard to live up to. The trilogy of 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in 2014, and 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes grossed over $1.6 billion worldwide.

A New ‘Planed of the Apes’ Trilogy — 300 Years Apart

Director Ball “wanted to do a big leap forward in time,” with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and does not intend to stop there. While he has described the original trilogy as “the Stone Age” for apekind, the coming sequel makes the species “Bronze Age” with perhaps, some more paws to come, with the director harboring plans for a new trilogy. “There’s more to come, I think. If we’re lucky enough, there’s more ideas to come, in 2 and 3,” he said previously, then adding, “I don’t want to say we end on a cliffhanger, but we certainly end on a new door opening, essentially, that will allow us to keep going, you know, if we wanted to. If we were successful enough to.”

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters on May 10. See the new poster above.

via Collider