JuicyTalk
Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Animals (2026)!EXCLUSIVE: Gillian Anderson’s fate was nearly different in Animals.
Directed, produced, co-written by and starring Ben Affleck, the new Netflix thriller centers on independent Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball who, on the verge of losing the political race, is suddenly thrust into the worst night of his life when his son is kidnapped and held for ransom by someone with a personal grudge against him. As he and his wife, Kerry Washington’s Abigail, try to come up with a plan, Animals throws the pair a twist when their son returns home with their housekeeper, and it is her son who was taken by the kidnappers.
With all of their finances tied into Mark’s mayoral race, his assistant, Steven Yeun’s Sam, suggests bringing in the mysterious Dayle, played by Anderson, to act as a mediator and lend the rest of the money to the Kimballs. As Animals culminates in a tense standoff between Mark and the kidnappers in an area of the Los Angeles River, Dayle’s associate successfully kills two of the kidnappers, while a third kills him and fatally shoots Dayle, who dies of her wound just as Kimball acquires her phone to get rid of the evidence of the fact he asked Dayle and her associate to kill the kidnappers.
In anticipation of the film’s release, ScreenRant‘s Grant Hermanns interviewed Gillian Anderson to discuss Animals. When asked about her character’s fate in the ending, and whether there were talks about a version in which she actually survived, given her generally careful approach to her work, the two-time Golden Globe winner not only confirmed that she and Affleck “did have those conversations,” but even shared that there “might have been a version where it was more elusive as to whether she survives at the end or not,” instead of the definitive death Dayle has.
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It is worth noting that while Anderson’s comments don’t directly establish there being an alternate cut of the film, the way Animals‘ ending was put together is largely structured in a manner that her character would have to have died. Much of the film saw Affleck’s character looking to set an alternate political path than his father and many others in the field by being a clean-cut figure who wouldn’t enter into corrupt deals just to benefit his campaign, thus making Dayle’s evidence of his order of the killing of the kidnappers making her another threat to him.
That being said, it is interesting that she confirms there were talks about how to make Dayle’s fate less definitive in Animals. The Netflix thriller, which is garnering largely mixed reviews from critics and audiences alike, underwent a lengthier development cycle than some. At one point, Affleck was only meant to direct the film while his longtime friend and creative partner Matt Damon would lead the cast as Kimball and the former’s ex-wife Jennifer Garner would star as Abigail.
However, as Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey began gaining steam, Damon had to depart the role and Affleck took over the leading role, while Garner exited as the pair agreed playing an on-set couple would spark the wrong conversation from audiences. Given Affleck also provided a number of revisions to Animals‘ original script drafts from Connor McIntyre and Billy Ray, there could have been a version in which Anderson’s character came out surviving.
In another world, this also would have given Affleck and Anderson the possibility to produce an Animals spinoff centering entirely on her character. Dayle’s fixer-like profession is one rife for a variety of thriller subgenre exploration, as well as backstory explanation of how she came to embrace the morally questionable side of the world for her work. However, even while she may have died at the end of Animals, should the film prove a major hit for Netflix, there’s still a chance the streamer may look for a way to expand the story.
- Release Date
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October 9, 2026
- Runtime
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106 minutes
