If you’ve watched the recent Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, you know the world is a messy, overgrown playground for primates. Humans are basically background noise. But if we rewind back to 2011, things were different. Very different. That’s when we met Will Rodman, played by James Franco.
Honestly, it’s wild to think that the entire downfall of the human race started because one guy wanted to save his dad.
James Franco Planet of the Apes history is kind of a tragedy when you look at it closely. He wasn’t a villain. He wasn’t trying to build a biological weapon. He was just a scientist at Gen-Sys who loved his father, Charles, played beautifully by John Lithgow.
The Accidental Architect of the Apocalypse
Will Rodman was a pharmaceutical chemist. He spent years developing ALZ-112, a gene therapy meant to repair the brain. He was desperate. His father was slipping away into the fog of Alzheimer’s, and Will was willing to cut corners.
Basically, the "Rise" in Rise of the Planet of the Apes refers to Caesar’s intelligence, but it’s really about Will’s failure to realize what he was unleashing. When the lab chimpanzee "Bright Eyes" was put down, Will took her baby home. He named him Caesar.
For eight years, they lived like a family.
Will treated Caesar like a son. He dressed him in sweaters. He taught him sign language. He even took him to Muir Woods to climb the redwoods. But here's the thing: Will was also secretly testing his experimental drug on his own father. It worked—at first. Charles got better. He could play the piano again. But then, the immune system fought back. The drug failed.
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This is where James Franco’s character makes the fatal mistake. He develops ALZ-113. It's a stronger, gaseous version of the drug. To us humans, it was the Simian Flu. To the apes, it was a miracle that gave them speech and strategy.
Why Did Will Rodman Just Disappear?
A lot of people ask what happened to Will after the credits rolled on the first movie. You see him say goodbye to Caesar in the redwoods. Caesar hugs him and whispers, "Caesar is home." It's a tear-jerker.
But then, 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes starts and Will is just... gone.
Director Matt Reeves eventually confirmed what most suspected: Will Rodman died during the Simian Flu pandemic. It makes sense. The virus wiped out about 99% of humanity. Even a brilliant scientist wasn't immune.
That Surprise Cameo You Might Have Missed
There is a moment in Dawn that hits hard. Caesar returns to his childhood home in San Francisco. It’s dusty, overgrown, and abandoned. He finds an old video camera and hits play.
Suddenly, there’s James Franco.
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It’s old footage of Will teaching a young Caesar how to sign. It’s a brief, emotional cameo that connects the two eras. Interestingly, Franco actually had no idea he was in the movie. He told Entertainment Weekly at the time that no one had even asked for his permission to use the footage.
"Wait, I have a cameo? I didn't know that," he said. It turns out the studio used old takes from the first film to ground the sequel in Caesar’s past.
The "What If" Ending We Never Saw
Did you know there was an original ending where Will Rodman didn't just fade away?
In an early script and a filmed-but-cut version of the climax, Will actually dies on the Golden Gate Bridge. He was supposed to take a bullet intended for Caesar. He would have died in Caesar’s arms, cementing the "son" as the new leader of a world without "father."
Test audiences hated it.
They felt it was too depressing. So, the filmmakers headed to Griffith Park on a holiday weekend in 2011 to reshoot the ending we eventually got—the one where Will lives to see Caesar enter the forest. Honestly, the final version feels more poetic. It leaves Will’s fate to our imagination, even if we know deep down he didn't make it through the plague.
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James Franco's Legacy in the Apes Franchise
Some critics at the time thought Franco felt out of place. They said he was "acting in a different movie" than the high-stakes CGI spectacle around him. But if you rewatch it now, his understated performance is what makes the first half of the film work.
If Will Rodman had been a mustache-twirling scientist, we wouldn't care about Caesar's rebellion. We care because Will was a good person who did a very bad thing for the right reasons.
He gave Caesar:
- Language: The ability to organize and lead.
- Compassion: The reason Caesar initially tries to spare humans.
- A Home: The redwoods that became the apes' first fortress.
Actionable Insights for Fans
If you're looking to dive deeper into the lore of James Franco's era in the franchise, here is what you should do next:
- Watch the deleted scenes: The Rise of the Planet of the Apes Blu-ray has the alternate ending footage. It changes how you view the bond between Will and Caesar.
- Check out the "Simian Flu" lore: There are tie-in books and comics that explain exactly how the virus spread from Will's lab to the rest of the world.
- Rewatch the "Dawn" cameo: Pay attention to Caesar’s face during the video playback. It’s arguably Andy Serkis’s best acting in the whole trilogy.
Will Rodman might be long dead in the current timeline, but his DNA—and his mistakes—are baked into every frame of the new movies.
To get the full picture of the franchise's evolution, start by re-evaluating the Gen-Sys laboratory scenes in the 2011 film. It's the only way to understand why the apes eventually took over. Look for the subtle ways Will treats Caesar as a human child, which ultimately gave Caesar the confidence to challenge human authority.