Warning! Major spoilers ahead for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

Summary

• Director Wes Ball teases that regaining the ability to communicate is crucial to the future of humanity after Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
• Noa and Mae could be the key to establishing a peace between apes and intelligent humans.
• With humans having regained a piece of technology that allows for more organization and more power, the potential for conflict between apes and humans increases.

Planet of the Apes timeline, the most recent installment in the hit franchise follows a young ape named Noa (Owen Teague) as he encounters both the human Mae (Freya Allan) and the evil Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). While it initially seems as if most of humanity has entered a feral state, the movie's final moments tease that an of intelligent faction of humans have just regained satellite communication.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Ball addresses humanity's future after the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ending. According to the director, the movie's last scene of humans re-establishing global communications will be crucial to the story going forward, as will Noa and Mae. Check out Ball's full comment below:

“So humans aren't done yet. They couldn't just be feral. Not yet. We've still got a long time before it's just feral. So the question's going to be what happens to the humans that are left that are trying like hell to speak again?

“I thought the cool idea of the movie, she talks about it. We lost our ability to speak. She's not talking about the vocal thing. She's talking about our ability to communicate with each other. So much of humanity's progress and advancement is because we can talk to each other, and when we can't talk to each other, things go wrong. Literally and figuratively. And so that's going to be a big part of it.

“Humans are almost going extinct. Can they hold on? Can they figure out a way forward? Will be the question.What kind of forces are going to drive them apart? If there's ever a chance for peace, it'll be between these two characters, [Noa and Mae] that had an experience together and know something about each other. And it could possibly be that bridge that we all, I think, desire, peace. There's just so much opportunity there for different ways to go with the story and yeah, it'll be fun to explore.”

What Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes' Ending Means For The Franchise's Future

Will Humans Become A Major Threat Once More?

Mae remains a mysterious character throughout Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and it's not until the movie's final moments that her true mission is revealed. She's been working for a faction of intelligent humans all along, and her quest was to recover a drive that re-activates her base's satellite communication capabilities. After communication is established once more, her base is able to speak to another faction of humans in a different region of the world.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes cast member Dichen Lachman plays the apparent leader of the film's intelligent faction of humans.

This communication will allow for the sharing of knowledge and for more sophisticated organization, both of which could contribute to humans eventually making a bid to take back their world. While feral humans aren't portrayed as a big threat in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, an organized force of armed humans could present a major problem for ape-kind. Mae and Noa, however, as Ball suggests, could be the key to preventing a conflict.

As previous movies in the Planet of the Apes franchise have made clear, though, all it takes is a handful of violent individuals to derail a delicate peace. Despite Noa and Mae's bond and their communication, one trigger-happy human or ape could easily plunge the world back into a state of war. It remains to be seen how events will unfold after the well-reviewed Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, but the film's final moments certainly tease that there's more to come.