Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Star Hints [Spoiler] May Have Survived

“I think that there is a chance [he survived],” the actor says of their character’s seemingly final fate.

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.] Proximus Caesar’s (Kevin Durand) day wasn’t so wonderful by the end of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. After raiding the village home to young chimpanzee Noa (Owen Teague) and the Eagle Clan, Proximus’ apes brought the bird-loving clan to his kingdom on the coast. The primate monarch sought the long-lost human technology inside of a vault to expedite ape evolution and expand his empire, but he underestimated the “Nova” Mae (Freya Allen) — a human woman who hadn’t devolved into a feral state — and Noa, who rallied the Eagle Clan to call to their trained eagles.

The birds swarmed and attacked Proximus Caesar, seemingly ending the tyrant’s reign of terror by forcing him over a cliff and plummeting into the raging waters below. Kingdom is just the first in a planned Apes sequel saga, and according to Durand, Proximus might not be a one-off antagonist.

“Does Proximus crawl out of that ocean? You didn’t see his body. You just saw a big splash,” Durand told The Hollywood Reporter. “He’s a gigantic, magnificent creature, and given the density of that beast, did he make it? I don’t know … but I think that there is a chance [Proximus survived] in Apes.”

Proximus isn’t the only character to seemingly die — also by water — over Kingdom‘s 2 hour, 25-minute runtime. When the traveling trio of Noa, Mae, and the orangutan Raka (Peter Macon) first reach Proximus’ coastal kingdom, an ambush causes Raka to fall into the rapids while saving Mae. She makes it back to land, but Raka doesn’t: he’s swept away and presumably killed. But the same logic applies: If there’s no body, there’s a chance Raka survived.

Viewers who stayed through the end credits heard an Easter egg suggesting Raka might be alive, as visual effects supervisor Erik Winquist confirmed to ComicBook. However, 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes‘ credits also ended with what sounded like Koba (Toby Kebbell) surviving his own fatal fall, but the bonobo baddie was eventually confirmed dead in 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes. 

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is now playing only in theaters.