MGM has a pretty magnificent archive — perfect for mining gold if you’re struggling streaming service MGM+. (Or non-struggling streaming service Prime Video — Amazon owns MGM.)
On Tuesday, MGM+ announced it had greenlit a remake of the 1960 classic western film The Magnificent Seven. The original film was produced by The Mirisch Company and released by United Artists (UA), which is now part of MGM. This time around, The Magnificent Seven will be an eight-episode series from Tim Kring, the Heroes guy. Casting has yet to be announced.
The OG Magnificent Seven was Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz. This is not the first time the iconic western is being remade. In the late 1990s, CBS briefly aired a series of the same name with Michael Biehn essentially in the Brynner role. And in 2016, a film remake (also of the same name) from Antoine Fuqua had a posse comprised of Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Martin Sensmeier.
Kring will write and executive produce his streaming version. Donald De Line (he’s got some MGM+ western experience via Billy the Kid), Lawrence Mirisch and Bruce Kaufman will also executive produce. The series is produced by MGM+ Studios and MGM Television Studios; production will begin in June 2026. The series will be available on MGM+ in the U.S., UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Chile.
“Set in the tumultuous 1880s American frontier, The Magnificent Seven is a reimagining of the classic Western tale. After a peaceful Quaker village is massacred by mercenaries working for a greedy and ruthless land baron trying to force them off the land he covets, seven gifted but flawed mercenaries are hired by the community to protect them from the land baron’s hired guns,” the synopsis reads. “But as the team embeds itself in the community, preparing to defend them against overwhelming odds, they are all forced to grapple with an essential question: is the use of violence acceptable to defend a people whose faith is based on non-violence?
“Tim Kring is a master storyteller,” Michael Wright, head of MGM+, said in a statement. “Tim, Donald De Line, Larry Mirisch and Bruce Kaufman have crafted a series that delivers the energy of a classic western, honors the legacy of the original film, and reasserts its timeless themes of the power of unity against oppression and flawed heroes finding redemption by helping those who can’t help themselves.”