[Spoilers follow]
"You could start this story again eight years from where we left off," Wyatt told Bleeding Cool. "The next generation of apes, those that have come from our protagonists, perhaps going in to a conflict with humans and showing real fear, in the same way as going into war for young soldiers in this day and age, telling their story."
Wyatt envisions a sequel in which apes learn about human culture by interacting with the remnants of human environments. His idea echoes shades of the original Apes series, which involved human survivors retreating to underground pockets, but with developments that pick up years after Rise of the Planet of the Apes concludes. "Spies [are] in the employ of the apes, working against humans and humans maybe existing underground," he continued, "because that's a way they can avoid the virus, coming up above ground wearing gas masks, and maybe that's what dehumanizes them."
Screenwriter and producer Rick Jaffa previously hinted that they'd planted seeds in Rise of the Planet of the Apes as potential clues to where the rebooted series could go in subsequent new films. A nod in the film to Charlton Heston's character's spaceship, the Icarus, from the original 1968 Planet of the Apes "opens up great possibilities for coming back in time into what, hopefully, we've set up -- to bring back some of the other ape narratives and mythologies," Jaffa told IGN during a RotPotA set visit.
Thoughts, Apes fans? Which direction(s) should Wyatt and Jaffa go in for the next installment of their franchise reboot?
• Sequels To Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes: Director Rupert Wyatt's Ideas [Bleeding Cool]