Matt Dillon, six other guys to be named later to star in Magnificent Seven TV series

Dillon will star in the series as Chris Adams, the character played by Yul Brenner in John Sturges’ 1960 classic. (Denzel Washington technically played a different character in the 2016 film, although his Sam Chisholm was functionally the same heroic dude.) Described as both stoic and steady under pressure, the character becomes the leader of the team of gunslingers who band together to protect a town from a “mercenary land baron” looking to gobble it up. (This time around, the action is set in the 1880s, and the despairing villagers are being played by a group of Quakers; the show will apparently explore the tension surrounding protecting a group of people committed to nonviolence by shooting a whole bunch of other people on their behalf.) 

There’s no word on what sextet of fellow gunslingers will join Dillon for the series, but descriptions of the series do suggest a pretty predictable path to extending out the original story—adapted, if you trace things back far enough, from 1954’s Seven Samurai—to TV series length, including what will reportedly be extensive flashbacks and backstories for each member of the Seven as they get assembled into a crew of heroes. Production on the MGM+ series is expected to start in June of 2026.