Owen Teague will be playing the role of the leading primate in 20th Century’s forthcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which will be directed by Wes Ball. A release date has not yet been set, but production is expected to start in a few months.

Teague was lauded for his role as a bully in the Stephen King adaptation of It. He also appeared in Black Mirror and The Stand, a limited series by Paramount+, as well as in such films like Mrs. Fletcher, inherit the Viper, and Bloodline.

Ball was tapped to direct the new production in 2019, replacing Matt Reeves, who left to direct The Batman. Ball is best known for having directed the 2014 film The Maze Runner, which was based on a novel by James Dashner. He also directed several sequels in the series: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) and Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018).

It’s been reported that Ball has already delivered his script, and the casting process is underway. The search is still on for the lead human who will play opposite Teague. Planet of the Apes has been evolving since the original film was released in 1968, starring Charlton Heston. Based on a novel by the French author Pierre Boulle, Planet narrated the saga of an astronaut who landed on a faraway, role-reversed planet where the apes ruled the humans. It turned out that the faraway planet was actually the Earth, which had suffered a devastating nuclear war.

The concept proved popular for both movie and TV screens, with numerous sequels and spinoffs over the years. In 2011, 20th Century released Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which described how the primates were able to make their evolutionary leap over their human competitors. It starred Andy Serkis as Caesar, the chief ape. A critical and commercial hit, it spawned a number of films that included Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of Apes (2017).