Freya Allen confirmed that original ending for the sequel was much less subtle.
Filmmaker Wes Ball has confirmed that his Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will hopefully launch a new world of storytelling for the long-running franchise, with the film’s final scenes teasing what the future could be. While some elements of that ending make it quite clear where the story will likely be going, star of the film Freya Allan recently revealed that the original version of the ending that was shot made some slightly ambiguous elements of that finale much more obvious, while also admitting that she prefers the version that is in the final cut of the movie.
WARNING: Spoilers below for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
After Allan’s Mae sabotaged Proximus and his plans for man-made artillery, Noa and the rest of Eagle Clan head home to rebuild their many damaged structures. With Mae’s decisions ultimately killing a number of apes, including the followers of Proximus and Eagle Clan members alike, Noa is confronted by Mae and we catch a glimpse of her gun. The two characters part ways peacefully, but rather than her gun being present for defense, the original ending made Mae’s intentions of killing Noa much more obvious.
“In the scene that I shot, Mae was going there to kill him because he scares her. His intelligence scares her. Mae doesn’t want to kill him, but she feels she has to,” Allan confirmed with The Hollywood Reporter. “Originally, you actually see her pull the gun on Noa, but his back is turned to her. And so you think, ‘Oh, my God, is she about to shoot him?’ Mae is crying as she’s doing it. And then she doesn’t. The minute he mentions Raka’s name, she puts the gun down.”
Despite Mae and Noa seemingly being allies throughout the film, it became clear that her allegiances were with humanity as opposed to Noa and Eagle Clan. This included Mae enlisting Noa to help her retrieve important data to help align satellites, allowing human survivors to potentially contact other groups from around the globe.
She added, “But then in the edit, they wanted it to feel more subtle, and I honestly way prefer what they’ve done with it. It’s so much smarter and really allows you to think more. So it becomes a very emotional goodbye, one with tragic, lingering doom.”
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is in theaters now.
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