There are a lot of things that make the Planet of the Apes movies so special, but one of the best and most unique things about the series is the way it used time travel. Taylor is flung into the future in the first film, and then Cornelius and Zira are flung into the past (present day of the films) in the third. From there the final two movies play with concepts of predestination in really interesting ways as they loop back around to the first film all over again.
The time travel element was missing from Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the reboot/remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and producer/writer Rick Jaffa doesn't think you should expect it in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the next film.
Talking to Total Film he says
It's the one big element that we made a conscious decision not to explore in the first one, and we were worried that there might be some backlash in the science fiction community because of it. When the story first came together we were very, very excited, and yet before we pitched it, I thought, 'The one thing missing though is time travel. But it's not necessary for this particular telling'. And I don't really foresee it, to tell you the truth.
It makes sense. The time travel stuff doesn't work in this reboot, since it was predicated by the surprise ending of the original movie. That said, Jaffa is wrong about the one bige element that was left out, as Rise doesn't have a twist ending like so many of the original Apes movies do. Compared to Beneath or Escape, Rise is a pretty predictable A-Z journey. I do hope that Dawn goes for something a little more batshit at the ending.
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