Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes New Trailers - 8 Things We Learned

8. The Setting

The placement of this story within the respective Planet of the Apes timeline is interesting, because it's taken a big jump in time from the first film. Dawn takes place eight years after Rise, after humanity has been all but wiped out by the "Simian Flu." The first movie featured the very beginnings of this story, as apes were just starting to evolve. That film left off at a place far and away from the "apes have taken over the world" period of the story. Interestingly, Matt Reeves has decided to skip the years that followed, and jump ahead to the point where apes have basically taken over the planet, with some human survivors struggling to stay hidden and stay alive.

Also worth noting is the fact that humans and apes have lived a very different eight-years. The humans spent four years fighting the virus, then another four fighting each other. During that time, the apes continued to evolve and grow in numbers, and as the trailer suggests, now "live in peace."