--- title: Here's Your First Look at 'War for the Planet of the Apes' description: Courtesy of director Matt Reeves canonical: https://time.com/4077917/first-look-at-war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-19T11:44:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:26:06.966Z og:title: Here's Your First Look at 'War for the Planet of the Apes' og:description: Courtesy of director Matt Reeves og:url: https://time.com/4077917/first-look-at-war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Your First Look at 'War for the Planet of the Apes' twitter:description: Courtesy of director Matt Reeves twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Here's Your First Look at _War for the Planet of the Apes_ by [Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly Oct 19, 2015 11:44 AM UTC by [Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly Oct 19, 2015 11:44 AM UTC _War_ has begun. Matt Reeves announced the beginning of filming on _War for the Planet of the Apes_, the sequel to _Dawn of the Planet of the Apes_, by releasing the first photo from the set. “#It has begun,” Reeves wrote on Twitter next to a photo of a scene of a lonely beach. Though it’s difficult to make out, an actor wearing a motion-capture suit to portray one of the apes is seen gesturing to someone on horseback. > [](https://twitter.com/mattreevesLA/status/655509181881954304) Andy Serkis returns to portray the evolved ape Caesar in _War_, the third installment of these prequel films. Steve Zahn (Pixar’s _The Good Dinosaur_), relative newcomer Amiah Miller, and Woody Harrelson were recently revealed for roles in the film. Plot details are being kept secret, though _Dawn_ finished with Caesar facing a new horizon after his people clashed with the surviving human population. _War for the Planet of the Apes_ will hit theaters on July 14, 2017\. [_This article originally appeared on EW.com._](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/10/18/war-planet-apes-andy-serkis-begins-filming) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4077917/first-look-at-war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4077917/first-look-at-war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes/"},"headline":"Here's Your First Look at War for the Planet of the Apes","datePublished":"2015-10-19T11:44:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:26:06.966Z","description":"Courtesy of director Matt Reeves","url":"https://time.com/4077917/first-look-at-war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nick Romano / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4077917/first-look-at-war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes/","name":"Here's Your First Look at War for the Planet of the Apes"}}]}] ```