Summary
- Tarzan, now known as John Clayton III, returns to Africa after leaving England and reclaiming his parents' home and title.
- Eight years between Tarzan leaving Africa and returning, during which he and Jane live in England as Lord and Lady Greystoke.
- Tarzan's adoptive brother, Akut, becomes the new Lord of the Apes in his absence, while Tarzan reunites with his human grandfather.
The 2016 movie director David Yates' version took a different route.
The original story of Tarzan sees the infant English Lord orphaned and alone in an African jungle. After being raised by a family of giant apes, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful American girl named Jane Porter. Of course, there is much more to the story, and the Tarzan books and the Legend of Tarzan movies differ in this regard. However, in both versions, Tarzan eventually moves to England with Jane. In The Legend of Tarzan, which stars Alexander Skarsgård and Margot Robbie, Tarzan returns to Africa, and the film reveals a good deal of what has happened in the years since he left.
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9 Tarzan Becomes John Clayton III, Earl of Greystoke
Tarzan reclaims his parents' home and title after leaving Africa.
Through the journal left in his parents' cabin, Tarzan learns prior to the events of The Legend of Tarzan that his actual name is John Clayton III, and he is the fifth Earl of Greystoke. After saving Jane from his ape brother, Akut, Tarzan adopts this name, moves back to England, and claims his parents' estate. By the start of The Legend of Tarzan, John and Jane are married, which makes her the Lady of Greystoke.
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8 Eight Years Between Tarzan Leaving & Returning To Africa
John and Jane lived in England for eight years.
At the start of The Legend of Tarzan, John is asked by the king of Belgium and the English Prime Minister to travel back to the Congo Basin (where Tarzan had been raised in this version of the story) to publicly show his for the efforts being made there. When Jane learns of the news, she mentions that they haven't seen the Kuba, the tribe in which Jane was raised, in eight years. It can be assumed that this is how long it had been since the pair had first departed Africa together. Therefore, John and Jane had been living in England as Lord and Lady Greystoke for the better part of a decade.
7 Tarzan Is Reunited With His Grandfather After The Original Story
It's implied that John meets some of his human family before The Legend of Tarzan.
In some versions of the Tarzan story, the titular character is reunited with his paternal grandfather when he returns to England. Since Tarzan is John Clayton III, this would be the first John Clayton. Though such a character is never seen in The Legend of Tarzan, John mentions his grandfather mid-way through the movie, indicating that this version of the story follows a similar route. Since Tarzan never knew his parents, it's a bit of a comfort to know that he was able to reconnect with a member of his family, especially given the tragic death of his adoptive mother, Kala.
6 Jane & Tarzan (John) Were Married In Either America Or England
John and Jane get married after the events of the original Tarzan story.
The details of how Tarzan and Jane got married differ from adaptation to adaptation. In the story's original version, John follows Jane to her home in America, where he marries her and brings her to England to be Lady Greystoke. Since The Legend of Tarzan sees Jane and Tarzan leave Africa under different circumstances (seemingly after Akut attacked her), it seems more likely that they left at the same time. In this case, they would have been married in England rather than in America. Regardless of where the pair got married, The Legend of Tarzan is clear that this happened in the gap between the original story and the movie.
5 Tarzan Tried To Distance Himself From His Past In Africa
John denied the name Tarzan in The Legend of Tarzan.
A unique feature of The Legend of Tarzan is John's reluctance to reconnect with his life in Africa. In the books, he was disgusted by the pompous upper class of England and felt far more at home on the continent where he was raised. Of course, the 2016 movie sees the character come to a similar conclusion, but during the period between Tarzan leaving Africa and returning, he has attempted to distance himself from the name "Tarzan" and denies that his mother had been an ape.
4 King Leopold II of Belgium Claimed The Congo Basin
Tarzan's and Jane's old home was taken over by Belgium after the original story.
The original Tarzan story is never entirely clear about where in Africa John was raised by apes, but The Legend of Tarzan indicates that it was the Congo Basin. In the years since John and Jane moved to England, the region was claimed by King Leopold II of Belgium, who sought to claim the valuable resources hidden there. As is revealed in the movie, Leopold racked up significant debt during the five years following his claim and used slave labor in an attempt to make up for his losses in the movie's jungle setting.
3 Mbonga Continued To Seek Revenge On Tarzan
Mbonga held on to his anger toward Tarzan for nearly a decade.
In the original Tarzan books, John kills the son of Chief Mbonga after the boy hunts and kills his mother, Kala. There was little resolution brought to this portion of the tale, but The Legend of Tarzan reveals that in the years after John left for England, Mbonga's resentment toward Tarzan had only grown. At the film's start, Mgonga offers Leopold's faithful servant, Leon Rom, diamonds in return for Tarzan being brought to him so he could exact his revenge for his son's death.
Mbonga became a sympathetic character in The Legend of Tarzan, ultimately choosing to John to protect his people.
2 Akut Became Lord Of The Apes (Instead Of Tarzan)
Tarzan's adoptive brother became Lord of the Apes after he left Africa.
In the original story of Tarzan, the wild man had become the Lord of the Apes after killing the previous leader, Kerchak. It's never clear in The Legend of Tarzan what sort of position he had solidified in the hierarchy of his adoptive family, but when he returns to the Congo, he sees that his brother, Akut, had become Lord of the Apes instead. Akut was never a feature of the original Tarzan books since Kala claimed Tarzan when her own baby died. However, The Legend of Tarzan changed this, allowing Akut to come to John's rescue as he faced off with Mbonga.
1 Jane & Tarzan Lost A Baby While Living In England
John mentions that he and Jane lost a pregnancy before the start of The Legend of Tarzan.
As much as John tried to forget about his life in Africa, he and Jane seemed to struggle to find happiness in England. The Legend of Tarzan reveals that they had almost had a child together in the years since the original story of Tarzan, but they had lost the baby. The details of this are never revealed, but based on John's comments about not wanting to put Jane through any more stress, it must have been shortly before the event of the 2016 film. Thankfully, The Legend of Tarzan movie had a happy ending, and Jane and Tarzan welcomed a baby boy after deciding not to return to England.
