Andy Serkis, star of Lord of the Rings and Planet of the Apes, has defended his upcoming film adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm, arguing that the changes—including a fart joke and a more hopeful conclusion—are in line with what Orwell himself would have wanted.
Speaking about the project, Serkis explained that the core message of the allegory about totalitarianism remains intact, but he felt that modern audiences needed a slightly different tone. "Orwell was a writer who used humor to highlight the absurdity of tyranny," Serkis said. "A well-placed fart joke can break the tension and make the political critique land harder."
The actor and director also addressed the ending, which in the novel is famously bleak: the pigs, who have become indistinguishable from the humans, are the new oppressors. Serkis's film adds a glimmer of hope. "We live in times where people need to see that change is possible," he said. "Orwell was a socialist who believed in a better world. I think he'd approve of an ending that suggests rebellion isn't in vain."
Serkis emphasized that the adaptation stays faithful to the novel's spirit while using the visual language of modern filmmaking and performance capture to bring the animals to life. "This isn't a sanitized version," he insisted. "It's a version that speaks to today's audience."