War For The Planet Of The Apes Concept Art Features Returning Original Series Character

12/22/2016 12:05 pm EST

20th Century Fox has built an immensely successful franchise in their Planet of the Apes reimagining, and the studio has released some new concept art that links the new series to the beloved originals.

In War for the Planet of the Apes, Caesar is two years into a long and hard fought battle with humankind and decides that drastic measures are necessary if they want to survive. The end goal is to remove the leader of the human forces from the equation, that being the Colonel played by Woody Harrelson. During that journey, however, they will come upon a young mute girl, a scene depicted in new concept art from the film (via EW).

The concept art shows Luca interacting with the child, who is named Nova (played by Amiah Miller). Nova will be a huge part of Caesar's arc in the film, with director Matt Reeves saying "The battle is not just between the humans and the apes but in Caesar's soul. The girl is his pull back to his empathy and — for lack of a better word — his human side."

Her significance isn't only to Caesar, however, as she's also a character from the original films. Nova was played in both the original Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes by Linda Harrison, who accompanied Charlton Heston. This is one of the most prominent links to the original series, and it will be interesting to see if War for the Planet of the Apes has any others to add.

War for the Planet of the Apes hits theaters on July 14, 2017.

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