
Where to Watch: Rentable on Amazon and most platforms. Read our review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes here. Set in the "present day," Rise of the Planet of the Apes also stars James Franco, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, and Freida Pinto, planting the seeds for what will become a world-wide war. Gollum himself, Andy Serkis, lent his extraodinary abilities to Caesar, a chimpanzee whose intelligence is increased through science, and becomes the heart of a prequel story all about the beginnings of the end for humankind. Motion capture technology and digital characters were on the extreme rise in the Aughts, allowing the Apes saga to move beyond practical makeup and into a new special effects arena that would allow for more emotion in performance from the lead Apes. Where to Watch: Stream on Hulu or rent on Amazon and most platforms. But there's no harm in still watching them first. They represent a fully rebooted timeline, presumedly with a different future than the one Charlton Heston's astronaut discovers in the 1968 film.

Here's the caveat: The three prequels from the last decade or so are not connected to the original series of films. The Planet of the Apes Movies in Chronological Order

A tenth film, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, will arrive in 2024. The 2001 reboot makes six and then the three prequels, which showcase how the world fell to the apes, round out the nine.

There are a total of nine movies set within the Planet of the Apes universe, starting with the 1968 original and its four sequels. How Many Planet of the Apes Movies Are There?
