Dawn of the Planets of the Apes will clearly be darkest for the humans.
In the second installment of this re-imagining of the 46-year-old Planet of the Apes movie franchise, humans and apes finally go to war. In 20th Century Fox's new trailer, half the planet has been wiped out since scientists accidentally unleashed the Simian Flu on unsuspecting humans. Now, human survivors live in their burnt-out relics of homes, and the highly evolved apes live deep in the forest.
The upcoming movie, along with its predecessor Rise of the Planet of the Apes, are essentially prequels to the original 1968 movie Planet of the Apes, which starred Charlton Heston as an astronaut who crash-lands and discovers a world inhabited and ruled by walking, talking, intelligent apes. Heston's character discovers (spoiler alert) that he actually landed on a future version of Earth that has been conquered by apes. Subsequent movies in the original series sought to explain the apes' takeover, but none did so as well as 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes starring James Franco.
Aside from a brief flashback, Franco is nowhere to be seen in this trailer, but Andy Serkis returns as Caesar, the first smart ape and presumptive leader of all the intelligent apes. He's joined in the cast by Gary Oldman and Keri Russell from The Americans.
In the trailer, which finally gives a clearer picture of the film's plot, Caesar wants to live in peace, but will clearly battle the humans when provoked. It looks dark, intense and a bit scary.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes hits U.S. theaters on July 11. Director Matt Reeves has reportedly already signed up for a third installment of Planet of the Apes, which is set for release on July 29, 2016.