Disney may soon be creating a sequel to the successful Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy, sparking speculation over what the new plot might be. While details are sparse at this point, a look at the events of the last film, War for the Planet of the Apes, and a look back at the 1970 film Beneath the Planet of the Apes, may indicate a startling new direction the filmmakers could take the story.

In the rebooted movie timeline, the apes become super-intelligent when a drug intended to cure Alzheimer’s disease increases their brainpower. The same drug mutates into a virus that decimates the world’s human population, leaving it open for ape colonization. Eventually, the “Simian Flu” virus mutates again, causing the few surviving humans to go mute and savage… or so it seems.

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In the first half of War for the Planet of the Apes, the intelligent apes – still led by the original hyper intelligent ape Caesar (Andy Serkis) – come across a mute human girl (Amiah Miller) who has apparently been affected by the new virus. When the apes are forced to kill the girl’s father in self-defense, a kind-hearted orangutan named Maurice (Karin Konoval), decides to adopt the girl whom he names “Nova” (a reference to Charlton Heston’s love interest in the original Planet of the Apes movie). Despite Caesar’s misgivings, Nova travels with the apes and assists them on their mission.

The apes also encounter other human soldiers who have gone mute and, apparently, savage. Later, Caesar encounters their leader, the cruel Colonel J. Wesley McCullough (Woody Harrelson), who claims the Simian Flu virus is causing humanity to regress to a more primitive, savage state. To keep the illness from spreading, the Colonel forces all the soldiers under his command to repeat several commands every morning. Anyone caught suddenly unable to speak is killed – as are any afflicted humans the soldiers encounter. The Colonel even reveals he killed his own son when he stopped speaking. However, the Colonel also falls victim to the Simian Flu when he touches Nova’s rag doll, causing him to go mute. Unwilling to continue living as a “primitive” savage, he commits suicide.

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While the Colonel’s theory about the virus seems to match up with how humanity devolved into a primitive, mute population by the time of the original Planet of the Apes 1968 movie, one thing doesn’t add up. Nova – the mute girl the apes take in – doesn’t appear to be primitive or savage despite having contracted the virus. Instead, Nova actually showcases greater intelligence throughout the film.

nova planet of the apes war

Although she can no longer speak, Nova picks up the apes’ sign language very quickly and is soon able to hold detailed conversations with Maurice. Moreover, she is capable of understanding the apes’ complex plan to escape through a series of underground tunnels and assists them. Most tellingly, Nova displays great compassion and bravery throughout the film – best seen when she sneaks into a dying Caesar’s cell and brings him food and water. A feral, savage creature would not act that way, but Nova regularly shows she has an advanced intellect, excellent awareness of her situation, and both the ability and desire to work with others.

All this leads to one interesting theory – while the Simian Flu virus does cause humans to go mute, it does not turn them savage. The soldiers who appeared to regress into a panicked primitive state were most likely reacting out of fear based on what they knew the Colonel would do to them once he discovered they could no longer speak. Many humans have a prejudice towards the blind, deaf, or mute – believing them to be less than whole people – and that prejudice could have easily influenced the way the Colonel’s soldiers treated the afflicted men. Moreover, since the afflicted believed the virus would make them feral and stupid, they began acting primitive from a purely psychosomatic response.

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By contrast, Nova was taken in by the apes – who have no prejudice against mute people. Indeed, although the apes are all capable of speaking by this point, only Caesar makes use of his voice. The rest prefer communicating by sign language, meaning Nova’s “disability” is basically a non-issue once she’s adopted into their group. Thanks to this lack of persecution and the apes’ willingness to involve Nova in their planning, Nova is able to exercise her intellect and show how capable she is.

So, what could this mean moving forward? Given that the majority of humanity will probably view the virus as something that will regress them to a primitive state, that’s exactly what will happen to them. Humans are no longer the dominant species on the planet, and many could embrace a feral way of life – which they could pass on to their children – just to survive. On the other hand, Nova, and other humans who can adapt like her, may find themselves evolving in a very different direction, much like some of the humans in the original Planet of the Apes films.

In Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston’s character Taylor and several other humans encounter a separate offshoot of humanity living underground who developed telepathic and other mind-control abilities after being mutated by a nuclear war (the original explanation for how the apes took over the Earth after humans blew themselves up). While they are considerably more intelligent and advanced than the primitive humans above, the mutants also worship a nuclear bomb capable of destroying the planet – which Taylor uses to blow up the Earth in the final scene.

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Although nuclear war is no longer the cause of the apes’ ascension in the rebooted movies, the engineered virus that empowered the apes in this timeline could also be creating a race of super-intelligent psychic humans. Considering how intelligent Nova was in War for the Planet of the Apes, it’s very possible that her descendants will continue to increase in intelligence and possibly develop additional mental abilities. Ironically, by saving Nova, the apes also gave humanity the opportunity to develop a race of their own super-beings!

Nova and Bad Ape in War for the Planet of the Apes

That being said, while the mutant humans from Beneath the Planet of the Apes had a violent streak, this does not mean that Nova’s children will be the apes’ enemies. Nova and the apes appear to have achieved a friendly trust by the end of War of the Planet of the Apes and even the original movies offered an alternate timeline where humans and apes lived together in peace.

Although the new movies will undoubtedly show the apes and the humans clashing, Nova’s interactions with Maurice and Caesar also indicate that levels of peace are still a possibility on the Planet of the Apes.

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