Everybody, let’s give a round of applause to the most recognizable actor in the entire cast of “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” who, to my knowledge, never showed up in a single second of marketing for the film. Yeah, even as someone who covers this stuff for a living, I’d completely forgotten that William H. Macy had even been cast in this sequel. So imagine my delight and surprise when he suddenly turned up more than an hour into the runtime as some random old man named Trevathan. Basically treated as a historian of sorts for Proxima, his main job is to provide all those aforementioned Roman Empire factoids while making sure to laugh at all of the ape king’s bad jokes. It’s truly no way to live and his years of indentured servitude have clearly beaten the poor guy down, as his disheveled appearance and Stockholm Syndrome-like mannerisms further hint at.

So why isn’t this pathetic supporting character dead last in these rankings? Well, mostly because of my overwhelming fondness for character actor extraordinaire William H. Macy, of course. On paper, Trevathan is simpering, weak, and essentially a traitor to the human race. But when you put all those characteristics into the hands of an actor who knows exactly how to elevate such material to another level entirely, I mean, it’s no surprise that I could actually imagine throwing back a couple cold ones with him and picking his brain about the fall of Carthage or something. It’s just a shame he had to get brutally strangled to prevent him from tattling on our main characters. So it goes!

Anyway, here’s a good rule of thumb: If you have the opportunity to hang out with William H. Macy, even hypothetically, you should take it.