Charlton Heston’s Taylor was the original hero in Planet of the Apes, but does he still exist in the current franchise timeline? Starting with the release of the first film in 1968, Planet of the Apes explores a future in which humanity has destroyed itself, and Earth is now ruled by primates who have evolved to be the superior beings on the planet. Taking a page from author Pierre Boulle’s classic political satire novel, the first film leaned heavily into the science fiction elements, and launched a franchise that is still going strong today.

The classic films from the ’60s and ’70s featured a convoluted timeline, and the introduction of time travel only made things more complicated. An attempt to remake Planet of the Apes came from Tim Burton in 2001, but the new vision is generally regarded as a spectacular failure. Fortunately, the franchise was saved with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which went back to the very beginning of the story and launched a prequel series. However, this reset made some big changes to the canon, and Charlton Heston’s Taylor was left in limbo.

Charlton Heston’s George Taylor Probably Doesn’t Exist In The Current Planet Of The Apes Timeline

The Changes Likely Mean That Taylor Has Been Erased

Rise of the Planet of the Apes rewrote the origins of primate dominance on Earth, and in doing so, they likely also made it impossible for Taylor to even exist. The first prequel film takes place in the modern day, meaning 2011, which is about 40 years after Taylor’s original mission was supposed to have launched. 1968’s Planet of the Apes clearly mentions that Taylor and his fellow astronauts left Earth in 1972 but were lost in space for thousands of years before arriving back on the planet.

This detail could still have been part of the canon if not for a cheeky reference to the original film in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It’s only shown for a brief moment, but a closeup of a newspaper reveals a headline reading “Lost in Space?“. This seems to suggest that the mission didn’t happen in 1972, but has been retconned to happen in 2011 instead. Unless Taylor’s lifetime was also shifted forward, he would likely be much too old to be on a space mission.

Another small Easter egg in Rise of the Planet of the Apes practically erases Taylor’s existence. While Caesar is being kept at the ape shelter, the film The Agony and the Ecstasy is seen playing on one of the TVs. The 1960s historical drama is one of Charlton Heston’s best movies, and it was a clever way to include the iconic actor several years after his pᴀssing. However, if Charlton Heston exists in the Planet of the Apes universe, it’s unlikely that his character exists as well.

How The Modern Planet Of The Apes Movies Changed The Timeline

The Prequels Rebooted The Downfall Of Humans

The Planet of the Apes prequel series gave the classic franchise a much-needed dose of realism, and it did that by changing some key details in the lore. 1968’s Planet of the Apes implied that humanity had been destroyed by some sort of nuclear war, and that was corroborated by the first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Rise of the Planet of the Apes ignored that, and instead introduced a virus that wiped out the bulk of humanity at the same time as a medical breakthrough which gave the apes heightened intelligence.

This change is similar to the retcon that Escape from the Planet of the Apes introduced, and the third film in the original series was the first to make major changes to the established lore. Even back then, it’s unclear if the change in the timeline made it so that Taylor never arrived in the future. Escape takes place in 1971, a year before Taylor’s mission was supposed to start. However, it’s unknown if Cornelius, Milo, and Zira’s timeline tinkering did to the near future on Earth.

The Planet of the Apes prequel films include:

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes made quite a few references to space, and that implies that the franchise’s future might involve a visit from astronauts from the past. The newspaper headline in Rise might have been a throwaway gag, or it could have been a subtle foreshadowing of the future. However, with so many changes to the timeline, it’s unclear what the Planet of the Apes is going to look like if humans from the past end up crash landing in the future.