Summary

• The Planet of the Apes franchise includes four separate continuities spanning over 55 years and multiple reboots and sequels.
• The original 1968 movie and its sequels follow humans in a world ruled by apes, while the prequels show how apes rise to dominance.
• The 2001 remake introduces a new standalone timeline with a different plot set on an alien planet ruled by advanced apes.

The complete Planet of the Apes timeline is actually made up of four separate continuities established over the course of the entire franchise. To date, the Planet of the Apes movie franchise spans over 55 years and includes the original pentalogy, a 2001 remake directed by Tim Burton, a reboot trilogy starring Andy Serkis as Caesar, and the 2024 film Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des Singes served as the template for 1968's Planet of the Apes, starring Charlton Heston, Kim Hunter, and Roddy McDowall.

The original story follows three explorers who land on a planet orbiting the star Betelgeuse and discover a world where apes run civilization while humans have been reduced to slave laborers. Both Boulle's novel and the 1968 film launched a hugely popular sci-fi movie franchise, which ran through the early 1970s. There was also a 1974 Planet of the Apes TV series, albeit a short-lived one, which only lasted for 14 episodes and heavily reworked the first film. Overall, the Planet of the Apes timeline is complex and will only get more confusing as the franchise continues expanding.

The Planet Of The Apes Release Order

Planet Of The Apes Includes 10 Movies

The Planet of the Apes movies of the late '60s and early '70s were just the first in what's evolved into a sprawling franchise. The release date timeline for all the Planet of the Apes movies started in 1968 with the very first movie in the series, starring Charles Heston as an astronaut that crash lands on what he believes to be an alien planet. It is there that he finds the planet is ruled by apes, with devolved humans serving them. This lasted through Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973, although the timeline there ended up jumping around to tell its story.

After Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake in 2001 was its own solo timeline, things changed to a third timeline in 2011. This was when Rupert Wyatt started the new franchise with Andy Serkis playing the ape Caesar. Unlike the first franchise, which started when an astronaut landed in a world where the apes were already in charge. In the new timeline, humans were still in power, but these movies showed how the apes took control, and how humans were responsible all along. All the movies could exist in the same universe, but for better understanding, they have remained separate up to this point.

The Original Planet Of The Apes Timeline

Planet of The Apes' Original Timeline Includes Planet of the Apes And Beneath The Planet Of The Apes

This original Planet of the Apes timeline only accounts for the first two films of the pentalogy, Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes. There are some discrepancies with the original timeline; Planet of the Apes establishes the starting point in the year 3978. However, Beneath seems to retcon this, placing the action several months after the events of Planet of the Apes, but moves it to the year 3955. Some argue a technical malfunction on Brent's spaceship in Beneath led to a false computer reading, stating the year was 3955 when he crash lands in his search for Taylor. As such, the year 3978 is the authoritative starting point where the original timeline is concerned.

• 1972: Astronauts Taylor, Landon, Stewart, and Dodge leave Earth. The crew is on a mission that involves traveling 700 years into the future.
• November 3978: The team's ship crash lands on an unknown planet. Stewart dies. The crew has survived thanks to going into hibernation while traveling at light speed and only feeling the effects of a slight time dilation, aging approximately 18 months. Their ship sinks.
• After determining they've landed on an alien planet, Taylor and Landon are taken captive along with a group of primitive, mute humans. Their captors are gorillas on horseback who walk, talk, and act like humans. Taylor sustains a throat injury, rendering him unable to talk.
• Taylor is held captive with other mute humans and is studied by chimpanzee scientists Dr. Zira and Dr. Zaius. He soon learns the planet he's landed on is inhabited by talking apes who have all settled into a distinct social hierarchy and have developed their own society. They consider humans inferior and use them for menial labor or study them for science.
• Zira and her fiancée, Cornelius, take an interest in Taylor. Cornelius shows Taylor artifacts from when humans existed on their planet. The apes also tell Taylor about the Forbidden Zone, a place outside of Ape City where Taylor believes he may find more information about the lost human civilization.
• After a confrontation with Zaius, Taylor and his female human compatriot, Nova, take off to search for the Forbidden Zone. Zira and Cornelius are charged with heresy for helping Taylor and Nova.
• As Taylor and Nova ride on horseback in their search, they come across the Statue of Liberty, buried in the sand. Taylor makes the horrifying realization he has somehow crash-landed on Earth, centuries after humans destroyed the planet.
• 3979: Just a few months after Taylor and Nova's escape, an astronaut named Brent crash-lands on the same planet. He and another astronaut (who dies in the crash) were commissioned to locate Taylor and his crew after their disappearance.
• Brent encounters Nova, who is wearing Taylor's dog tags. Nova takes Brent to Ape City, where he sees General Ursus calling for an invasion of the Forbidden Zone while Zaius protests. Brent is injured by a gorilla soldier and Nova takes him to Zira and Cornelius' home to care for him. There, Zira and Cornelius tell Brent about their time with Taylor some months ago and reveal where he might have gone.
• Zira helps Brent and Nova evade capture by the gorilla army. They take refuge in a cave Brent realizes was once the Queensboro Plaza subway station in New York City. Brent and Nova separate from Zira and make their way through the cave system to what used to be St. Patrick's Cathedral. There, they find a group of mutated human survivors with telepathic abilities who worship an atom bomb similar to the one which destroyed Earth centuries ago. Brent is reunited with Taylor, who is being held captive by the mutants.
• The ape army invades the caves and a battle between the apes and mutant humans ensues. Nova is killed. The bomb is activated by one of the mutant leaders. Taylor and Brent attempt to stop the bomb from going off. Brent is killed and Taylor is fatally injured. Taylor collapses and sets off the bomb, destroying the entire planet in Beneath the Planet of the Apes' bleak ending.

The Planet of the Apes TV show worked off the same timeline as the original movie.

The Caesar Planet Of The Apes Timeline

Caesar's Timeline Included The Last Three Movies In The Planet Of The Apes Pentalogy