War Of The Planet Of The Apes Casts Gabriel Chavarria As Human Lead

East Los High actor will join Caesar for trilogy closer.

At the close of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Jason Clarke was seen bidding farewell to Caesar, before squirreling his family away to safety in the face of impending war. That freed up space in the franchise for a new human lead, a hole we're learning Gabriel Chavarria will fill for 2017's War of the Planet of the Apes. Chavarria has some feature credits to his name, including 2007's Freedom Writers and 2011's A Better Life, but is best known for his work in TV's East Los High. I'm not familiar with the show, but did catch him in A Better Life, where he made a solid impression.

Chavarria is only in his mid-20s, which makes him considerably younger than previous franchise heads James Franco (33 at the time of Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and the aforementioned Clarke (44 for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). That would likely mean his character has come of age in a post-Simian Flu world, a youthful, and potentially dangerous perspective only lightly touched upon in Dawn. It's being reported that Chavarria will play one of just two human leads in the film, which like its predecessors is going to have Caesar and his simian society front and centre. It's a little early for specific plot details, but the title promises battle on a grand scale, and returning director Matt Reeves has hinted this outing will see Caesar gain mythic status within Ape lore. After the excellent opening two chapters, this gets me very, very excited. War of the Planet of the Apes opens 14th July 2017 in the US and 21st July in the UK.

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Writer, cinephile and owner of Vampire's Kiss on DVD. Take from that what you will.