The primary characters of the American film franchise of Planet of the Apes are a combination of humans and intelligent apes with both species acting as protagonist and antagonist across the series in three disparate timelines. The original film and characters were based on French author Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Planète des singes, translated into English as Planet of the Apes or Monkey Planet. These characters from the original story were added to with each addition to the series.