Netflix has dropped the full trailer for Animals, Ben Affleck’s first film behind the camera since 2024’s Air, and it’s a considerably darker ride than his last outing. Affleck directs, co-writes, and stars as Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose glittering public image cracks the moment his young son, Denny (Christopher Woodley), is kidnapped.

Kerry Washington plays Kimball’s wife, Abigail, and the two find themselves scrambling to raise a ransom while most of their money is tied up in the campaign — a crisis that quickly drags out secrets neither of them wanted exposed. “Power creates leverage. And leverage dictates outcomes,” one line from the trailer warns, setting the tone for a story that’s as much about political image-management as it is a kidnapping thriller.

The supporting cast is stacked: Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Adriana Paz, Ray Fisher, and Matt Gerald round out the ensemble. Affleck co-wrote the script with Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray, and reunites behind the scenes with Matt Damon, who produces through their Artists Equity banner alongside Brad Weston, Collin Creighton, Dani Bernfeld, and Luciana Damon.

Notably, Animals is skipping the fall festival circuit entirely — it heads straight to select theaters and Netflix on October 9. It’s also a project with a complicated backstory: Affleck previously came close to making an earlier version of this story with Matt Damon and Jennifer Garner attached, only to shut it down at the eleventh hour after learning Spike Lee and Denzel Washington were making their own kidnapping thriller, Highest 2 Lowest. He evidently couldn’t let the material go.

Animals arrives in select theaters and on Netflix on October 9, 2026.