We are living in the franchise-heavy film era, which can sometimes feel exhausting (see: ‘Transformers’) or can sometimes be very enjoyable, depending on the product. In television, having a clear endpoint in mind is a good thing (see: ‘Breaking Bad’); meanwhile, studios are now planning their franchises out years in advance. Again, this can be good (Marvel), or, as our own Matt Singer bemoaned, it leads to what he finds to be an unnecessary splitting of the final chapter to extend the life of a franchise. It’s refreshing, then, to know that some studios are playing things a little looser with their franchises, like hearing Andy Serkis say that he just isn’t sure how many ‘Planet of the Apes’ movies there will be.

As ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ prepares to hit DVD and Blu-ray on December 2, we’ve been hearing more and more from both director Matt Reeves and star Andy Serkis about their plans for the upcoming sequel. And today brings another bit from Caesar himself, who was asked by MTV about where we’ll find things picking up in the third film. His answer was a bit lengthy, and he revealed that the ‘Apes’ films may not end with the upcoming third installment:

It’s very, very early in where we choose to drop anchor in the next film. It could be five years after the event, it could be the night after the events of where we left ‘Dawn,’ so it’s very difficult to know where the story is going right at this moment because it’s being written as we speak. I know that part of the desire for Matt [Reeves] to do this next movie is about continuing the enjoyment of seeing these apes evolve. So I don’t think we’re going to see a situation where we’re jumping….It might be three films, It could be four. It could be five. Who knows? But the journey will continue. It might not necessarily be summarized or completely fulfilled in this next one. The point being, eventually we know that we’re going to end up back at ‘The Planet of the Apes,’ but whether it’s this film or not, I don’t know.

So the short version is basically: there could be four, there could be five, or this third one could be it, who knows. The still untitled sequel will put Reeves back in the director’s chair and Serkis back in mo-cap action as Caesar, and is currently set to hit theaters on July 29, 2016.

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