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Following the critical acclaim from fans of Revolution on the Planet of the Apes by MR Comics, writer Ty Templeton and Joe O'Brien began brainstorming ideas for a potential follow-up. Seeds for these ideas had already been subtly planted in the original series. The name of this proposed sequel—whether preliminary or final—was first mentioned in the HAIL CAESAR Q&A section of the miniseries' final issue. In this section, the publisher revealed that the release and sales performance of the Revolution on the Planet of the Apes trade paperback in late 2006 would determine if and when the follow-up series would be published.
"This isn't the end of the Planet of the Apes, merely the end of this first story. If you'd like to see more from Mr. Comics' Apes title, then it's up to you guys to tell your retailer to ORDER THE GRAPHIC NOVEL when we release it later this year. Sales of the collected version of Revolution will determine when we begin our follow-up series: EMPIRE ON THE PLANET OF THE APES. We have enough ideas for the next series to fill twelve issues, but it's up to you guys to help us convince the retailers of this world that you want to read new Apes stories every month."
Plot[]
The authors planned to explore the construction of Ape City following the events of Revolution on the Planet of the Apes and the film Battle for the Planet of the Apes. The sequel aimed to address the reasons behind the eventual split between the ape species, a division hinted at in various printed media histories from other publishers. This storyline was foreshadowed in the backup story of the fifth issue, Ape Shall Not Kill Ape, which depicted the growing rift between chimpanzees and gorillas. After the events of the fifth film, the two groups began living in separate camps, each with its own Lawgiver, setting the stage for the planned narrative.[1]
“The schism between chimps and gorillas came from the gorillas’ wish to see all humans killed,” Templeton explained, “and the chimps wished to live with us lowly people. This was mostly because of the terrible treatment gorillas suffered before the ‘Night of the Fires.’ Chimps, bonobos and orangs were usually domestic servants, gorillas were laborers, and the memory never went away.”[1]
The primary goal of the authors when developing Empire on the Planet of the Apes was to reconcile Aldo’s dual depiction as both a hero of ape history, as mentioned in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, and as the “monstrous villain” portrayed in Battle for the Planet of the Apes. For Ty Templeton, the foundation for this reconciliation was established in the backup story Ape Shall Not Kill Ape. This story introduced an army of apes—descendants of those who had left Ape City 300 years earlier in protest of humanity's role in society—returning to challenge and rewrite ape history. “There’s more than one history of this civilization,” he says. “It splits up at some point, to come together again. Anthropology is full of that stuff — Phoenician/Egyptian/Nubian cultures all have the same root languages and religious icons, but they clearly become different cultures at some point.”[1]
Miscellaneous Ideas That Might or Might Not Have Stayed[]
- Another idea Templeton considered exploring was something that had always puzzled him about the first two films: “I had always wondered about the lack of non-whites in Zaius’ time,” he explains. “There is something fascinating there, but it would have to depict a hideous period of history that one would cringe while reading about. I assume they [non-whites] were hunted to extinction five hundred years back, no?”[1]
Notes[]
- Empire on the Planet of the Apes would have marked the second original story in comic book format to feature Mandemus, the wise keeper of Caesar's conscience. The first appearance of the character in this medium was in Quest for the Planet of the Apes from Marvel's Apes Magazine.
Trivia[]
- Some of the ideas that Templeton and O'Brien had would later find their way into the comic books published by BOOM! Studios.
- The idea of exploring what had happened to non-Caucasian humans was later addressed in Planet of the Apes: Ursus by David F. Walker.
- The Moon's destruction was later depicted in Planet of the Apes Cataclysm by Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko, though under very different circumstances. While the story features a lunar colony, the timeframe differs from the original idea—the detonation now occurs eight years before the arrival of astronaut George Taylor, rather than 100 years after Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (circa 2091).