New trailer shows that Andy Serkis' Animal Farm will have some politics in it, after all

The new trailer shows more of Rogen’s Napoleon and his Stalinesque rise from rebellion leader to dictator than those first two sneak peeks, with enough of Orwell in there—the worker animals get less and less to eat while the pigs get greedy and spoiled (and, at some point, apparently put on ’70s-looking sportcoats)—to make you think maybe Serkis and screenwriter Nicholas Stoller know what they’re doing, after all. But then Gaten Matarazzo’s Lucky, a piglet created for the movie, seems to be set up in a heroic role that doesn’t exist in the book; it’d be just like a modern day kids movie to turn Animal Farm into a Screenwriting 101 Hero’s Journey, as if a despotic regime can be taken down by the good intentions of one true hero and not, y’know, some combination of the weight of its own corruption and a concerted effort by the masses.

Joining Rogen and Matarazzo are Kieran Culkin as Napoleon’s propaganda master Squealer, Woody Harrelson as the exploited workhorse Boxer (an actual horse, obviously), Laverne Cox as Trotsky stand-in Snowball, Jim Parsons as the sheep, Iman Vellani as Lucky’s piglet friends, Kathleen Turner as the cynical donkey Benjamin, and Glenn Close as… a billionaire CEO who wants to take over the farm. Because Animal Farm has always needed a Cruella de Vil-style villainess. The movie’s out in just a few weeks, so get your predictions in now on what ’80s pop songs will soundtrack its montages.