On Nov. 22, more than 20 members of the Planet of the Apes Society (POTAS) gathered in Barrows Auditorium to watch “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” the fourth installment of the 2011 “Planet of the Apes” reboot series. The event lasted from 7-10 p.m. and included a faculty panel discussion following the film’s screening. The panel discussion featured Robert O’Connor, associate professor of philosophy, and Thomas Martin, professor of English.
The “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” movie night is the second POTAS event of the semester. POTAS holds regular events and has the largest mailing list out of all Wheaton clubs, boasting over 500 subscribers. Since POTAS counts every subscriber as an unofficial “member,” the clubs claims to be the largest on campus, despite being one of the newest.
The “Planet of the Apes” franchise portrays a dystopian future where intelligent apes become Earth’s dominant species. The intelligent apes usually are in conflict with remaining humans, who have devolved into a primitive state.
POTAS was started in 2022 by Caleb Peterson ‘24. Peterson first fell in love with the “Planet of the Apes” franchise after finding the original 1963 novel by Pierre Boulle and its subsequent novelizations at a secondhand bookstore in 2020. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he binged the movie series, finishing the nine movies that had been released to that point. When he returned to Wheaton his sophomore year, he started watching the movies again with members of his floor, Traber two (T2).
Peterson and friends from his floor began the club his junior year as a joke, wondering if they could pull off such a hyper-niche club. To Peterson’s surprise, over 150 people signed up to join.
“Wheaton has some pretty niche clubs. There’s the Tolkien Society, and there used to be the Doctor Who Club. We wanted to create something even stranger, even more niche, something with even less broad appeal and try to see how big we could make it,” Peterson said.
Peterson dubbed himself “lawgiver” of the club, referencing a prophetic, orangutan figure who set up the laws that govern ape society. As the club gained traction, they hosted their first movie night, featuring “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” Over 100 students attended the event. Later that semester, they brought roughly twenty students to the Lincoln Park Zoo. They wanted to embrace the joke — and the fun.
“Wheaton students have an air of overcommitment and stress. We think if we’re not stressed, then we’re not being successful,” said Peterson. “So I wanted to create something fun and lighthearted for Wheaton students to engage with that didn’t take itself too seriously.”
“That’s always been the mission of the club: Not to take ourselves too seriously,” he continued. “I think that’s something we accomplish very well.”
Three years after its conception, the mission of the club remains largely the same. Current lawgiver Tim Schill, a junior studying Bible and theology, was a resident on T2 when the club first developed. Although he didn’t know much about “Planet of the Apes” at first, he is fully a fan now.
“I don’t think there was anything about the franchise that I knew beforehand and really loved. It was the club that made me love ‘Planet of the Apes,’ not the other way around,” Schill said.
As this year’s lawgiver, Schill is continuing the zoo trip and movie night traditions, and he expressed a similar vision to Peterson’s.
“I really want to have a club where people can just have fun. Wheaton doesn’t have a lot of that. I want a club with no competition and no pressure to be an overachiever — where you can just enjoy watching apes hit each other,” Schill said.
Peterson also said that the spirit of the club offers more than just fun. The themes hidden in the movies’ fantastical premise are surprisingly profound. The Friday night panel unpacked the movie’s central conversation — asking questions about personhood, morality and our connection with the transcendent.
“The movies deal with important themes that are relevant to us even today about the interplay of science and religion and about how we treat those around us. Its themes include environmental stewardship and the treatment of animals,” Peterson said. “It makes for interesting satire.”
Next semester, the club is planning several new activities, including a partnership with the Climbing Wall and an ape game show. Elijah Fish, a junior studying Spanish and anthropology and a founding member of the club, said that everyone should try to attend an event and join the club.
“I want to look back and tell people that I was one of the original members of the Wheaton College chapter of the Planet of the Apes Society,” Fish said.
