Character actor Steve Zahn is a national treasure, and it looks like he’s going to be flexing a different acting muscle in his next project. The actor will rally on the side of the apes in Matt ReevesWar for the Planet of the Apes, following in the footsteps of Toby Kebbell, whose incredible portrayal of Koba in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes nearly stole the show.

The Wrap reports that Zahn has joined the cast of War for the Planet of the Apes, in which he’ll play a new ape character alongside Andy Serkis, who is reprising his role as Caesar. Zahn joins human cast members Woody Harrelson and newcomer Gabriel Chavarria (star of the upcoming Lowrider movie). Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves is returning to helm the upcoming sequel, though plot details remain somewhat scarce.

Last year, Reeves said the third film would see Caesar become “sort of like an ape Moses,” an iconic, heroic figure among his fellow primates:

The first one is sort of how [Caesar] goes from humble beginnings to becoming a revolutionary. In ‘Dawn,’ he really rose to occasion of becoming a leader in really challenging and difficult times. The notion of what we’re after with the third is to sort of continue that trajectory and see how he becomes a seminal figure in ape history. He almost becomes sort of like an ape Moses. A mythic status… We’re trying to play out those themes and continue to sort of explore it in this universe. Exploring human nature under the guise of apes.

Meanwhile, Serkis hinted that we could see more than three Apes films. War for the Planet of the Apes is currently scheduled to hit theaters on July 14, 2017.

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