Meet 'The Magnificent Seven' With These New Character Vignettes

Assembling a cast that doesn't pale in comparison to the original The Magnificent Seven's ensemble must not have been easy. We're still waiting to see how Antoine Fuqua's remake of John Sturges' western compares to the original, but The Equalizer director certainly put together a cast that inspires promise. Whether they match the charm of the original cast doesn't really matter, because even if they come halfway to capturing the magic the original cast had, then we're in for a treat.

Below, watch The Magnificent Seven character vignettes.

The remake stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-Hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and Martin Sensmeier. The Magnificent Seven follows the group of gunslingers as they try to protect a town from a ruthless industrialist (led by Peter Sarsgaard) taking everything they have, which is more or less the plot of the 1960 film. The major changes mostly involve the characters. Based on the marketing, including these character vignettes, this new gang has little in common with the original team.

To start, meet the leader of the pack, Sam Chisolm (Washington):

Next up is Faraday (Pratt), a gambler with a great shot:

The big, religious bear of the group is Jack Horne (D'Onofrio):

This is Billy Rocks (Lee), a knife thrower not too dissimilar from James Coburn's character:

You can't have a gang of outlaws without a guy with nothing to lose. Here's Vasquez (Garcia-Rulfo):

Perhaps the biggest badass of the group is Red Harvest (Sensmeier), a Comanche without a tribe:

Last but not least, the tortured sharpshooter of the gang, Goodnight (Hawke):

It looks like Goodnight is the character that'll most capture the spirit of the original. The magnificent seven are not meant to be heroes. A speech Charles Bronson has in the original remains powerful and poignant to this day: The farmers are the real heroes, his brawny anti-hero says. It would be exciting if, while also making a fun PG-13 popcorn movie, Fuqua captures that essence of The Magnificent Seven. If he wanted to make nothing more a big shoot 'em up starring an all-star cast, that's fine, too, but here's hoping this remake has a heart and some brains to go along with its high production value.

Here's the official synopsis:

Director Antoine Fuqua brings his modern vision to a classic story in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures' and Columbia Pictures' The Magnificent Seven. With the town of Rose Creek under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), the desperate townspeople employ protection from seven outlaws, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns – Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-Hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). As they prepare the town for the violent showdown that they know is coming, these seven mercenaries find themselves fighting for more than money.

The Magnificent Seven opens in theaters September 23rd.