Winter is coming. And with it comes war. 

Andy Serkis is back as leader of the apes, Caesar, and he’s never looked better. The CGI in Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was already impressive. Now it feels like they’re just showing off. Take a look see at the debut trailer for Matt Reeves’ War for the Planet of the Apes:

Excited? Excited!

Might this be the performance that finally gets Serkis an Oscar nod for his motion capture performance as the great ape? It’s a nomination that probably should have come for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Or even earlier than that, for the Lord of the Rings films. Either way, it’s pretty daft that he’s not been getting the recognition he deserves. I wrote about just this at length previously, and it’s a question likely to rear its head again once War opens. Perhaps the now all walking, all talking Caesar might be a little easier for the Academy voters to connect with.

Opposing Caesar this time around is Woody Harrelson’s Colonel, who will be hoping to fare better than Gary Oldman did in Dawn. Not that Oldman was bad in particular, just not near as interesting as the apes, in particular Toby Kebbell’s pesky troublemaker, Koba. Without any obvious ape antagonist candidates for Caesar to clash with, it lumps more pressure on Harrelson’s character to deliver a worthy human foe for our heroes. Unless, of course, Koba is in fact to make a return, as was rumoured a while back. Koba, who fell from a ridiculous height, seemingly to his death in the previous film. It seems a bit of a stretch that he’d be back, but you never know, maybe we’ll be surprised. Or, maybe not. Almost certainly not.

War for the Planet of the Apes opens July 14th, 2017.