Noa in Planet of the Apes: Actor, Eagle Clan and What Happens to Him

Noa is a young chimpanzee from a clan that bonds with eagles, and he is the central character of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024), directed by Wes Ball. Owen Teague plays him and is billed first in the credits, ahead of Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon and William H. Macy.

The film is set many generations after the death of Caesar. Apes now rule the Earth, and most humans have become wild and mute. Noa is a falconer from a clan that bonds with eagles, and he is preparing for the coming of age ritual that involves raising an eagle from an egg.

He has no alternate names in the credits, and he appears in no other film in the saga. If you are tracing the character across the series, the full list of planet of the apes characters will show where he sits next to Caesar, Maurice and the rest. For the order in which to reach him, see the planet of the apes movies in order.

Noa's closest ties are to his father Koro, his mentor Raka and the human woman Mae, and the film shows no family link between him and Caesar. His father Koro (Neil Sandilands) is killed in the raid on the village, and the clan he was raised among is taken. Soona (Lydia Peckham) appears beside him in the final scene, where the two look through a telescope.

Raka. The orangutan Raka (Peter Macon) is Noa's mentor on the road. He teaches Noa Caesar's original ideas, and he is swept away while saving Mae.

Mae. Freya Allan plays Mae, credited as Nova / Mae. She is a human who can speak, and she and Noa work together inside the kingdom, although she is hiding her own aim. Her armed goodbye at the end shows that the trust between them has limits. The credit name echoes Nova from earlier films, so that is the page to read if you searched for that name.

Proximus Caesar. Kevin Durand plays the king, Proximus Caesar, who has enslaved many clans and wants the contents of the vault. Trevathan (William H. Macy) is his human advisor, and Sylva (Eka Darville) is the gorilla who leads the raid.

Is Noa related to Caesar? Noa lives generations after Caesar died, and the film links them through teaching, by way of Raka, rather than through blood.

In my opinion, Noa's best moments are the ones where the film lets him learn rather than fight. The first is the return to the burned village, because it takes a character who has so far been defined by a ritual and removes everything that gave the ritual meaning. It also gives the audience a reason to stay with a lead who, at that point, has no history in the saga.

The second is his time with Raka. Caesar was a figure of legend by this stage, and having an orangutan pass on his ideas to a younger chimpanzee is a neat way to tie a new hero to the old story without making him a relative. It could be argued that this is the film's smartest piece of continuity, since the earlier films (from rise of the planet of the apes onward) were so focused on Caesar's family line.

The third is the flooded vault. Noa traps Sylva in the bunker and then leads the clan and their eagles against Proximus, so the falconer set up in the first act pays off as a set piece. Paradoxically, the quietest moment, the telescope, may be the one that stays with viewers longest, because it asks a question the film does not answer.