We’re still a couple of years away from ‘War of the Planet of the Apes‘ hitting the big screen but have just found out that Woody Harrelson (‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1‘,’Zombieland’) will play the villain in the movie. He’ll be joining the Gabriel Chavarria (‘Low Riders,”Aquarius’) who is the only other cast member set at this point. Initially Chavarria was billed as one of the heroes of the story though now his exact role seems unclear.
While we don’t know much about Harrelson’s character, we do know that he will be playing a character called the Colonel. It is unclear at this time if he will be a straight out villain or just escalate tensions between man and ape even worse than Gary Oldman did in ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.’ On the flip side, it could also mean that Harrelson is going to be going the Andy Serkis route and end up as one of the Apes.
I’m guessing we’ll see him as a human.
As someone with experience playing a hero, a villain, and everything in between, this could be a great area for Harrelson to use his acting chops. I’m kind of hoping that with being called the Colonel that we’ll see him as the last leader of a military unit who is trying to wipe out the apes so they can play him off as a highly unlikable character. From a previous interview with director Matt Reeves we already know that “war is not avoided” and as this is where Caesar “is going to become like a mythic ape figure, like Moses.” I suspect it will be done by pushing down humanity in order to give rise to the apes as the ruling species on the planet.
Are you looking forward to see Woody Harrelson tangle with the apes in ‘War of the Planet of the Apes’?
‘War of the Planet of the Apes’ opens July 14, 2017
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
