Up until now, the Planet Of The Apes franchise has maintained little more than a tenuous connection to the original continuity of the series.
When Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes debuted back in 2011, the franchise framed itself as a far more grounded and gritty reinvention of the series, but with each passing installment we have see the franchise move closer and closer to the universe we all know and love.
The apes have learned to communicate by speaking, they can ride horses, and now they even use guns.
Nova seems like the final piece of the puzzle, as the character may actually end up bridging the continuity of the franchise at some point over the course of the next few movies.