Wes Ball refused to take the Star Wars approach for Caesar and Noa.

kingdom of the planet of the apes

SUMMARY

Caesar and Noa aren’t blood-related confirmed director Wes Ball.
Ball explained that a blood connection wasn’t necessary to make fans like Noa.

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Heading into theatres, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes had huge shoes to fill, as the modern trilogy, which concluded seven years back, set the bar pretty high. Although this entry in the IP doesn’t continue the trend of stepping up with each new release, which is reasonable considering how great the last one was, it’s still a worthy continuation of the franchise.

While not physically present in the film, Wes Ball did an impeccable job of capturing Caesar’s spirit and his influence, and the director didn’t drop the ball with the franchise’s new protagonist, Noa. Although the director confirmed that both Noa and Caesar are connected, it’s not the way that many would’ve assumed.

Noa’s Connection to Caesar in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Is Spiritual

Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in Star WarsA still from Disney’s Star Wars | Walt Disney Pictures
Instead of taking the Star Wars way and making Noa blood-related to the former protagonist of the franchise, Wes Ball stressed that the connection between the two is spiritual. The director explained that not everything needs to be connected by blood, stating that fans would love Noa irrespective of his relationship with Andy Serkis‘ Caesar.
A still from War for the Planet of the Apes Andy Serkis as Caesar in War for the Planet of the Apes | 20th Century Studios
He told The Direct:

“And so there’s this idea, I think, throughout the movie, even look at the first frame of the movie and the last frame of the movie, they are spiritually connected. But they don’t need to be like Star Wars or some other, you know, movie that we’ve seen constantly where everything’s connected by blood. We don’t need to go there. It’s like I get the instinct. It’s all good. You can you can fall in love with Noa as much as you could if he was the great, great, great, great grandson of Caesar.”

Ball wasn’t wrong with his assessment, as despite not being a descendant of Caesar, fans have come to love Noa, whose story has just begun.

Wes Ball Would Love to Continue This New Chapter

From the film’s ending, it’s very apparent that Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes wasn’t set to be a one-off thing, and Wes Ball has shared promising news about its future.

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Considering the ending of the film is shaped more as the beginning of the next one, Ball revealed that they’ve many interesting ideas about its future and would love to continue this story.
Disney's Kingdom of the Planet of the ApesA Still from Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes | 20th Century Studios
He explained:

“That’s the goal. That’s the hope. We’ll see if fans kind of take to these characters and this story. Because we’d love to continue telling this story, we’ve certainly got ideas, and we laid track for where this could ultimately go.”