Cringe And Proud

I do think Kingdom is a pretty complete story, but it really seemed like they planned on doing more with Noa and Mae. Especially since they were teasing a sequel/trilogy for them back when it released, so I was a little upset (crashing out) when they said the next movie won't be a continuation. It sucks to get attached to these characters then learn we might not see them again, which is why I'm gonna cope by sharing my theories on what I thought was gonna happen:

Mae was going to get the redemption arc that Preacher in War didn't. She's presumably spent her entire life underground, probably being taught that apes are violent, dangerous beasts who took what belongs to humanity, nevermind that humans started everything in the first place. And at first, it seems to be true because her group is slaughtered by Proxy's raiders. Until she meets Noa and Raka, two apes that show her kindness at no benefit to themselves, and one even gives his life to save hers. Then after everything, she goes back to see Noa because a part of her does care about him, but she still holds a gun behind her back thinking, 'Maybe this is it. This is when he snaps and shows that he's just an animal like the others.' Only for Noa to prove her wrong and show her kindness once again by giving her Raka's necklace, even after her betrayal. So Mae is left with the realization that she's the one with blood on her hands, and she's the one that used him for her own gain. She still thinks the world belongs to humans, but there's some doubt creeping in. Maybe apes and humans aren't as different as she thought.

As for Noa, I thought that since Caesar was ape Moses, he was going take on the role of Bible Noah. With the bunker humans regaining communication, they were almost definitely going to try taking back the world. Noa was shown to be a strategist rather than a fighter, so he was going to figure out some way to save his kind rather than face humans head on. Maybe it even leads to a little bit of a villain arc for Noa where he starts falling into Proxy/Koba's line of thinking? Some of the bunkers probably have weapons left (possibly nukes?) and were going to use them against the apes like in the original movies. Maybe Mae redeems herself by turning the weapons on her people to help the apes? Sort of like what Taylor did in Beneath.

Anyway, rewind back to Proximus' kingdom specifically the moment when Mae comments on Noa liking Soona. I thought that was a little out of nowhere because even though I like Mae and I'm a huge nomae shipper, she did not gaf about his personal life and she barely even saw them interact. Lowkey, I think it was partly because they want to stay away from human/ape romance (cowards), but mostly, I believe they were going to do a time skip to where Noa and Soona were together and possibly had kids. Then either Soona or one of their kids was going to get killed and kick off the human-ape conflict for the next movies. I know that's pretty similar to Caesar and I'm probably overthinking it, but I just thought that line about Noa liking Soona was weirdly thrown in there.