Ben Affleck’s new film as director, the political thriller Animals, is now streaming on Netflix. Affleck also co-wrote the film and stars opposite Kerry Washington as a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped.
Ben Affleck is back behind the camera. Animals, a thriller he directed, co-wrote and stars in, began streaming on Netflix on October 9, 2026, the streaming service said.
The Story
Affleck plays Mark Kimball, a candidate for mayor of Los Angeles. According to Netflix, when Mark receives an ominous phone call, he and his wife Abigail, played by Kerry Washington, scramble to respond to a threat that could upend their carefully constructed life.
The official synopsis describes the plot more directly: when their son is kidnapped, the couple find themselves drawn into a web of deception.
Netflix describes the film as a political thriller set against the hills of Los Angeles, following the Kimballs on what it calls the worst night of their life.
The Cast
Alongside Affleck and Washington, the film stars Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, Luis Gerardo Méndez and Adriana Paz.
Who Made It
The film is produced in partnership with Artists Equity, the studio founded by Affleck, Matt Damon and Gerry Cardinale of RedBird Capital. Its producers are Affleck, Damon and Dani Bernfeld, together with Brad Weston and Collin Creighton of Makeready, who developed the project with Fifth Season.
Cardinale has had a busy week. He is also a board director of Skydance, the company formed on October 6 when Paramount completed its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Affleck the Director
Netflix notes that Affleck’s Hollywood career now spans more than 30 years. He won an Academy Award for co-writing Good Will Hunting and directed Argo, which won Best Picture.
Animals lands a week after another prestige Netflix release, the limited series East of Eden, which reached No. 1 on the service’s weekly chart of English-language shows.
Image: Ben Affleck at San Diego Comic-Con, 2016. Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.