Planet Of The Apes: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Nova

Summary Nova from Planet of the Apes is a key character with a rich history that includes being 22 years old in the first movie.

There were original sequel ideas that involved Nova settling in a human society, alongside surprising plans for her character development.

Nova has appeared in different aspects of the Planet of the Apes franchise, from being initially envisioned topless to becoming a mainstay character.

While the apes are certainly the most memorable aspects of these movies, Nova from Planet of the Apes has proven to be a key character in the franchise. The original 1968 movie starred Charlton Heston as astronaut George Taylor who found himself on a strange planet where talking apes have become the dominant species. With the humans of the planet rounded up like cattle by the apes, one of the first whom Taylor encounters is the beautiful Nova, played by Linda Harrison.

A mute human inhabitant of the titular planet, she befriended, helped, and eventually became the partner of Taylor. However, while Taylor's presence in the franchise has faded over time, Nova has continually been reinterpreted in the series, adding new aspects to the character and revealing more about her. However, with the character largely relegated to a supporting role in all of her appearances in the Planet of the Apes movies, there are still a lot of things fans might not know about Nova.

1:50 Related Every Single Planet Of The Apes Movie (In Chronological Order) The Planet of the Apes timeline is a bit confusing, so we arranged them in their proper chronological order

11 Nova Was 22 Years Old

The Character's Age Was Revealed In Movie Tie-In Material

As a commentary on how humanity treats "lesser beings" like animals, the humans in Planet of the Apes are not given much individuality and are sort of lumped together as creatures. This means that there is little known about their backstories and where they come from, but a small detail about Nova's life is that she is 22 years old by the time she is introduced in Planet of the Apes.

This piece of trivia about her age was shared in The Ape, a promotional newspaper distributed among moviegoers to build up hype around the film. It is fitting that actor Linda Harrison was the same age as the character at the time. While it is a nice piece of information for the audience to have about her character, it is unlikely that Nova even knows what her age is as she has been living as an animal on the run for her entire life.

10 Nova Had A Different Story In The Unmade Sequel

Planet Of The Men Was An Abandoned Franchise Idea

After the success of the first film, the studio executives planned to launch the Planet of the Apes franchise. While Nova would end up returning for the eventual sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, there was a different sequel imagined at first which would have been a very different story for her.

Pierre Boulle, the author of the French novel that inspired the film, drafted a story and idea for a screenplay titled Planet Of The Men. This interpretation would have had deeper philosophical connotations around the character.

The plot would have revolved around Nova and Taylor settling in a society of primitive humans and educating them in the process. Nova would also have a son called Sirius who ends up killing apes. A human would have killed Taylor in the chaos that ensued. In the end, Nova would grieve his death and recognize the destructive nature of humanity that could not be avoided.

9 Nova Had A New Future In James Cameron's Sequel

Cameron Was Attached To The Franchise Before Tim Burton's Remake

Following Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973, there had been a lot of attempts to restart the franchise with a variety of filmmakers attached at various points. However, the most exciting prospect of them all was James Cameron.

Before Tim Burton's remake, James Cameron was planning a Planet of the Apes sequel to the original two films carrying forward Taylor and Nova's legacy. Similar to the story mentioned before, this take would involve Taylor and Nova having offspring and overseeing the rise of a new society.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to star as a new astronaut coming to the planet where the society of apes has been divided into factions and ruled over by a power-hungry descendant of Caesar. Schwarzenegger would learn of other humans living in the Forbidden Zone, where Taylor and Nova would be reintroduced, having raised a family of intelligent humans who are targeted by the apes.

8 Ursula Andress Was Envisioned For The Role

The Swiss Actor Was Coming Off The Fame Of Dr. No.

Acting legend Charlton Heston gets most of the attention for his heroic role in the original Planet of the Apes, but Linda Harrison's performance as Nova has become iconic as well. Though the character is intriguing enough to make her memorable, Harrison does a lot with the silent role, showing that Nova is a strong and resilient person even in the harsh reality that she finds herself in. However, she was not the only actor considered for the role.

According to Planet Of The Apes: An Unofficial Companion, When originally thinking of the character, producer Arthur P. Jacobs envisioned Ursula Andress in the role. Though she started her role as a Swiss model, Andress had also become an icon thanks to her standout role opposite Sean Connery as the very first Bond girl in Dr. No. However, Andress was reportedly uninterested in the non-speaking role of Nova.

7 Linda Harrison Was The Girlfriend Of The Movie's Producer

Richard Zanuck Introduced The Project To Harrison

Though the era of social media seems to highlight celebrity gossip and scandals at a much faster rate, these sorts of stories have been a part of Hollywood since its earliest days. The same is true of the original Planet of the Apes in which Nova's actor Linda Harrison was involved in an affair with producer Richard Zanuck who had discovered her years earlier.

Zanuck was the one who initially told Harrison about the project and helped secure her a screentest for the role of Nova. Harrison admitted that she knew it was a possibility that people on the set might have seen her in a negative light as the girlfriend of the producer, but she insists that the relationship only made her ensure she was on the best behavior. She and Zanuck later married after the movie and went on to be married for nine years with two children.

6 Nova Was Originally Pregnant

Charlton Heston Requested The Storyline Be Dropped

The ending of Planet of the Apes is one of the most iconic twist endings in movie history and has cemented the movie as a true classic. However, the end was nearly different thanks to a storyline for Nova that was ultimately cut from the final movie.

Up until the penultimate draft the script for the movie contained a storyline involving Nova being pregnant with Taylor's child. The ending of the movie would have had Taylor killed by an ape and Nova escaping with their child into the Forbidden Zone.

According to the book Planet of the Apes Revisited: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Classic Science Fiction Saga, Heston was not comfortable with the storyline and insisted it be cut. However, some of the footage for the storyline must have been filmed as Linda Harrison insists there is cut material that exists somewhere out there of a pregnant Nova.

5 Linda Harrison Cameos In The Remake

The Original Nova Actor Plays Another Wordless Role

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Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes was a critical failure that ended any hopes of rebooting the franchise. Though the movie is different from the original, it features many of the similar characters from the original, albeit with different names.

Mark Wahlberg stars as an astronaut named Leo Davidson rather than George Taylor. Likewise, his human love interest, played by Estelle Warren, is named Daena rather than Nova. However, the movie does include a nod to Nova from the original with a cameo from Linda Harrison.

She appears as one of the human slaves inside of a cart along with Leo. She stops Mark Wahlberg's character from challenging apes and causing danger for her own tribe. In addition to this, even Charlton Heston popped up for a cameo in the reboot, appearing as General Thade's (played by Tim Roth) father.

3 Nova's Nudity Was A Concern For Censors

The Original Plan Was For The Human Characters To Be Topless

One of the most memorable aspects of Planet of the Apes is the costumes of the human characters. While Charlton Heston's loincloth look has become one of the most famous parts of the movie, there were initially plans for the female characters to be wearing even less than they are in the finished movie.

In the initial drafts of the script, Nova and all the other female human characters were supposed to bare their breasts. This set up a struggle with the censors about how much nudity could be tolerated in the movie before settling on the fact that the women would indeed have to some sort of clothing on their upper body. While it is understandable that the movie was not willing to fight the censors over this idea, it also makes a lot more sense that primitive humans wouldn't be concerned with the modesty of their clothes.

2 The Remake Featured An Ape Named Nova

The Character Appears Unconnected To The Original Character

Along the same lines as how Charlton Heston was cast as an ape character in Tim Burton's version of Planet of the Apes, the derided remake also found an interesting way to pay homage to Nova in a subversive way. Though the human character who closely resembles Nova in the remake goes by the name Daena, there is a character in 2001's Planet of the Apes named Nova. However, it is an ape character.

Lisa Marie, an actor who appeared in several Tim Burton movies in the past, from Ed Wood to Mars Attacks!, has a small and unrecognizable cameo in Planet of the Apes as an ape named Nova who is the companion of the ape politician Senator Nado. While it could simply be a nod to the character from the original, there is no apparent connection between this ape and the character played by Linda Harrison.

1 Nova Is A New Character In The Planet Of The Apes Prequels

A Character Named Nova Appears In The Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes

Decades after the character first appeared in Planet of the Apes, the character of Nova still has a presence in the franchise, albeit changing to fit the new Planet of the Apes timeline. The prequel series set the franchise in an exciting new direction with the apes being the focus rather than the human characters. However, even with Andy Serkis' Caesar as the lead, human characters were still part of the story.

In War for the Planet of the Apes, Caesar and the other apes find a mute girl who is the only remaining survivor after her community was wiped out by the virus. The child later reveals to Maurice that her name is Nova. However, with the new timeline of this series, it is likely she is not meant to be a younger version of Linda Harrison's character. To add to the confusion, Freya Allen's character in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is given the name Nova as well.