Woody Harrelson is Playing The Villain in New PLANET OF THE APES Film

Following his supporting role in The Hunger Games movies, Woody Harrelson is jumping into another big franchise: THR reports that the True Detective star will play the villain in the upcoming Planet of the Apes film. (The outlet says the title will be War For the Planet of the Apes, but we'd previously heard it'd be called War of the Planet of the Apes, so I'm not sure if that's a typo on THR's part or if the title has been changed.)

Harrelson will play a human character called the Colonel, but plot details are being kept under wraps at this point so not much else is known about the film other than the obvious: it will continue the story of Andy Serkis' ape character, Caesar, who has risen to become the leader of the apes following the events of the two previous films. Gabriel Chavarria will play another new human character, and director Matt Reeves and screenwriter Mark Bomback are back in their respective roles after Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

I would not have been surprised to learn that Harrelson was using motion capture to play an ape, but apparently even after the events of the last film, the story is still at a point when humans are a force to be reckoned with for Caesar's family. These new Planet of the Apes films have been surprisingly great (Dawn was especially fantastic), so hopefully Reeves continues the trend with the new one when it arrives in theaters on July 14th, 2017.