What Happened to James Franco’s Apes Character

In the second part of our coverage from the set of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, we talk with producer Dylan Clark about the past, present, and future of the revived franchise -- including what the exact status is of James Franco and Freida Pinto’s characters from the previous film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Spoilers for that film obviously follow, but here’s a hint: It ain’t pretty.

“I mean, they’re the ones that died,” Clark told IGN of Franco and Pinto’s characters on the New Orleans set of the film. “They were ground zero of the virus.”

Of course, the virus Clark is talking about is the Simian Flu, which was seen spreading at the end of 2011’s Rise and, by the time Dawn’s story picks up about a decade later, has wiped out about 90 percent of the world’s human population, even while allowing for Andy Serkis’ ape leader Caesar and his kind to establish a thriving colony of their own.

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