Koba Nearly Returned In War For The Planet Of The Apes: Here’s How

Toby Kebbell’s villain Koba almost returned in a major role for War Of The Planet Of The Apes – here’s how. The original Planet Of The Apes is a classic series that began with the 1968 original. The first entry was a fantastic sci-fi movie with a shock twist ending and was enough of a success to convince the studio to press ahead with a sequel. The trouble is, this was in a period when follow-ups were rare and generally looked down upon by actors. Despite fielding different pitches, star Charlton Heston wanted little to do with a sequel but relented and agreed to an extended cameo in Beneath The Planet Of The Apes.

Part of Heston’s agreement for returning involving his character dying and triggering an explosion that would destroy the planet, thus preventing further Planet Of The Apes movies. This did little to slow the progress of the series, which ran for three more sequels and a TV show. Tim Burton’s 2001 remake was greeted with a negative reception and failed to spawn a sequel, but Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes from 2011 launched a hit trilogy. This centered around Caesar (Andy Serkis), a chimpanzee who evolves to become a leader as apes gradually become the dominant species

War For The Planet Of The Apes is the third and final entry in the Caesar trilogy, where he seeks out a murderous Colonel (Woody Harrelson) after his family is murdered. This sequel also deals with the evolution of the virus that wiped out most of mankind, which is causing the human survivors to regress and lose the ability to speak. The previous movie Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes saw an uprising by Caesar’s former friend and commander Koba, played by Toby Kebbell.

Koba received vicious treatment from mankind during his captivity and fostered a bitter hatred for them. A turning point in Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes finds Koba turning on Caesar because of his kindness to humans, so he leads an uprising the sparks a war between apes and mankind. Koba is eventually killed by Caesar in the finale, though in the end credits rubble and breathing are heard, suggesting he survived his fall. Director Matt Reeves felt Koba was such a compelling bad guy he left the door for the character’s return and later explained to the Q&A With Jeff Goldsmith podcast about how Koba would have played into War For The Planet Of The Apes had he returned.

One of Reeves’ early concepts for War For The Planet Of The Apes involved an opening scene where humans are bombing a colony of apes, with the presumed deceased Koba being a survivor. Despite his hatred for mankind, the bonobo would have been seen bowing to human forces and becoming a collaborator in revenge against Caesar. Despite the director’s love of the character, he realized the idea Koba somehow survived his fiery demise in Dawn was “ridiculous,” though he recycled the collaboration idea for “donkey” Red, who works with the human forces. Koba still makes two brief appearances in Caesar’s dreams in War For The Planet Of The Apes, as he’s still haunted by Koba’s actions and death.

While Koba was a great, complex villain, it was too much of a stretch to suggest he survived his fall in War For The Planet Of The Apes. His actions from Dawn are still very much felt in the final chapter, as it was his plan that set the apocalyptic conflict in motion.

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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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