How to watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

The newly-rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise continues with its latest instalment, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, out now in UK cinemas and IMAX.

As the fourth film in the series, Kingdom serves as a direct follow-up to 2017’s climactic War for the Planet of the Apes, which itself was a sequel to 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

In addition to regularly featuring titles that are a bit of a mouthful, this effects-laden retooling of the original sci-fi franchise of the 1960s has carved out a niche for using groundbreaking motion capture imagery, bringing the Apes franchise to life like never before.

While parts one through three showed us how the apes battled humans and later themselves for world domination, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes appears to show them as Earth’s dominant species.

What else do we know? Read on to find out…

How can I watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes?

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes in out in UK cinemas and IMAX now. It made its debut on Thursday, 9 May having been brought forward from its original date of Friday, 24 May.

What are the reviews like?

Well, it’s finally happened. The apes have taken over Earth and cinema screens following the release of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. However, one question remains: Will their rule be glorious or pretty forgettable? According to these reviews, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

The Apes’ franchise has always broken new ground in the world of visual effects and Kingdom continues that trend, with The Guardian commenting on this element while also suggesting the series is ready to either transform or end. “The CGI ape faces are very good,” says reviewer Peter Bradshaw, adding that “this franchise has held up an awful lot better than others; now it should evolve to something new.”

Total Film pats the series on the back for coming such a long way since Rise but suggested that “Kingdom seems a bit of a regression” when it comes to basic storytelling.

Meanwhile, The Telegraph called it an “epic adventure, played entirely straight” and again added more prais onto its CGI monkey performances.

Read the full reviews below:

The Guardian: Future simians swing through cinematic jungle (3-min read)

The Telegraph: This handsome blockbuster harks back to the days of the Hollywood Western (3-min read)

Total Film: Offers spectacle and thrills, but lacks the smarts and ambition of its predecessors (2-min read)

Is there a trailer for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes?

The first trailer for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes dropped in November 2023 and invited us into a sprawling, overgrown Earth that has some new owners.

In this overgrown jungle dystopia, apes have become the dominant species, with humans relegated to the sidelines and forced to live in hiding from their physically superior counterparts.

However, as the trailer progresses, we glimpse the beginnings of a new battle starting to rear its head.

Watch the full trailer below:

What happens in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes?

Warning: Spoilers follow

Directed by Wes Ball, the same filmmaker behind The Maze Runner franchise, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is set 300 years after the events of the franchise's initial trilogy and sees Earth fully in the furry hands of the ape species who have taken over as the planet's primary inhabitants.

The humans who managed to survive the battle that led to their supremacy are now forced to live on the edges of society and remain in hiding, feral and often treated like pets by their new ape overlords.

This new world is an apparent oasis carved out by the apes’ former leader Caeser, a character whom we last saw in 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes. While Caeser never lived to see his species take over the planet, his ultimate vision of many different ape clans living together as one has largely come to fruition.

However, it’s not long before in-fighting within ape society starts once more when a new tyrannical leader named Proximus Caeser starts enslaving his fellow apes while searching for an old piece of human technology that can cement his reign.

Thankfully, one hope remains in the shape of Noa, a young ape with the power to change the future.

As the film’s official synopsis explains, this “young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.”

According to Ball, this could be the start of a whole new chapter of the Apes story. “From the beginning we thought about this as a trilogy,” he told Empire.

“We had these grand ideas of where it could ultimately go and how it could fit into the legacy of these movies. So I’m certainly talking to [the studio] right now about the next story.”

Who is starring in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes?

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the first in the franchise not to feature a performance from Andy Serkis’ Caesar.

Instead, the action is led by IT actor Owen Teague as Noa, a young chimpanzee who was born a generation after Caesar’s reign.

Speaking to Empire, Teague explained that Caesar’s legacy has been all but forgotten in this new ape world, with Noa having “no idea” who the great ape was or what he did for their species.

Teague is joined by Lost star Kevin Durand as the evil Proximus Maximus, a character who may know more than he’s letting on about Caesar and his work.

“Caesar is almost a religious figure, and Proximus has taken on the name Caesar because it was the highest position held in ape society,” Durand told Empire. “It was a self-proclamation that was achieved by any means necessary, to ensure that apes continue to evolve.

“So you’re seeing the influence and the evolution of what Caesar left. And, like in every morsel of human history, there’s always some type of tyrant who comes along and scares everyone into believing them.”

Peter Macon stars as Noa’s wise Orangutan guide Raka alongside The Witcher’s Freya Allan as a young feral woman named Mae. Other cast members include William H. Macy, Neil Sandilands, Lydia Peckham, Eka Darville and Sara Wiseman.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is out now in UK cinemas and IMAX.