Planet of the Apes began in 1968 with the release of the original film, adapted from Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel, imagining a world in which intelligent apes have risen to dominance over a mute, subjugated human race, famously revealed in Charlton Heston’s climactic discovery of a ruined Statue of Liberty. The film’s stark political allegory, memorable makeup effects, and one of cinema’s most quoted twist endings established it as a science-fiction landmark and spawned four sequels across the following decade, along with an animated series and a short-lived live-action television show in 1974.
After the original 1968-1973 series of five films, 20th Century Fox rebooted the franchise with Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes (2001) before relaunching it again with the acclaimed prequel trilogy: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), charting the ape leader Caesar’s rise to power over a crumbling human civilisation. A further instalment, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024), continued the saga several generations later, and the rebooted series has grossed well over $2 billion worldwide across its combined instalments, with further sequels already confirmed.
The modern trilogy’s apes were brought to life through some of the most sophisticated motion-capture performance work in cinema, led by Andy Serkis as Caesar and supported by movement and creature specialists including Terry Notary, whose motion-capture ape performances across the rebooted trilogy sit alongside his work developing physical performance for Marvel’s Hulk and other major blockbuster creature roles. That reliance on elite physical performers has given Planet of the Apes a reputation as one of the most technically demanding franchises for its cast to work on, requiring months of movement training before filming even begins.
Planet of the Apes remains one of science-fiction’s most respected and consistently reinvented franchises, with the rebooted trilogy in particular earning some of the strongest critical notices of any blockbuster series of the 2010s. With Kingdom continuing the saga and further sequels in development, the franchise’s blend of political allegory, motion-capture innovation, and iconic imagery, from ape masks to the ruined Statue of Liberty, keeps it a strong presence in both film history discussions and the collector’s market for props, posters, and cast memorabilia.
The franchise’s makeup work on the original 1968 film, created by John Chambers, was considered so groundbreaking that it prompted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to create an honorary award recognising the achievement, a full decade before a competitive Best Makeup category was formally established. That legacy of technical innovation carried directly into the modern trilogy’s motion-capture work, and the franchise’s underlying political allegory, exploring themes of slavery, nuclear war, and animal rights, has kept each new instalment relevant to the social concerns of its own era.