Gary Oldman spills beans on “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”

Gary Oldman is no stranger to big-budget franchises, with his role as Sirius Black in Harry Potter being just one in a long list of successful films. The latest addition to that list is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the upcoming second film in the new Planet of the Apes series.

Screenrant reports that Oldman has revealed that the film plot centers around a group of humans who have survived the ape virus that infected the world at the end of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. In an interview with MTV, Oldman said of his character in the film,

“He’s the sort of designated leader if you will of this community of those [who] were lucky enough to survive the simian flu, the disease, and then the ensuing social uprising from it…. And they need power, and there’s a power station, and some of my people go out to see if it’s operational, if it’s still out there, and then they discover that there’s a whole community of apes living there. We believed they were all completely fire-bombed and wiped out…”

Oldman then continued by discussing the motivation of his character, who wishes to see the end of the apes:

“He’s experienced a great loss, personally, and there’s only one answer for him, and that’s to wipe [the apes] out. I see him as a sort of the hero of the piece.”

Of director Matt Reeves, Oldman revealed,

“He wanted to make it more of a human story. He wanted to explore what had happened and keep it more focused on the human side of it, before the story becomes the Planet of the Apes as we know it from the original.”

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is set to hit American theaters on July 11, 2014. Are you looking forward to the film? Let us know in the comments!