Meet Bad Ape in the Latest ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ Clip

Just because War for the Planet of the Apes is poised to finish up the current Apes trilogy, that doesn’t mean it can’t introduce a few new characters into the mix. We’ve already met Nova, the mute human child that’ll connect this trilogy to the original movies, but there’s another new face joining Caesar’s crew. Bad Ape, portrayed by Steve Zahn, is a similarly altered chimpanzee who learned to talk when the Simian Flu hit and wiped out most of humanity, and he brings news to Caesar’s tribe of an ape zoo that he escaped from.

Bad Ape is the first ape who can talk that Caesar and his buddies have found outside their own tribe, which raises plenty of questions as to how widespread this smart apes thing really is. Bad Ape seems just as articulate as Caesar, if not even more so (his “I’m okay!” is such a natural, hilarious reflex). And his news of an ape zoo is probably the thing that drives Caesar to go after these humans.

Here’s the official synopsis:

In War for the Planet of the Apes, the third chapter of the critically acclaimed blockbuster franchise, Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.

War for the Planet of the Apes hits theaters July 14.