Who IS the murderer on the Orient Express? The line-up of suspects from the new eagerly anticipated film based on Agatha Christie's novel

By Jonathan Bucks For The Mail On Sunday

Published: 23:12 EST, 3 June 2017 | Updated: 23:13 EST, 3 June 2017

GAZING nervously about the carriage, any of the elegantly attired passengers aboard a luxurious train from the golden age of travel could be a murderer.

This is the line-up of suspects from the eagerly anticipated new film of Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express, set in the 1930s and featuring a magnificently moustachioed Sir Kenneth Branagh as detective Hercule Poirot. Seen together for the first time, these are the same characters from the 1974 version of the famous whodunit, in which Albert Finney played Poirot alongside stars including Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery and Lauren Bacall.

Whodunit: A carriage full of suspects in a new film starring and directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh

Whodunit: A carriage full of suspects in a new film starring and directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh

In the new film, caddish businessman Samuel Ratchett, played by Johnny Depp, is found dead. In the film’s trailer, Poirot tells them: ‘I see evil on this train. A passenger has died. If there was a murder then there was a murderer. The murderer is with us and every one of you is a suspect.’

A shocked Mary Debenham, played by Stars Wars actress Daisy Ridley, gasps ‘Good God! Murder, here?’ When Willem Dafoe’s character, sinister Austrian professor Gerhard Hardman, asks: ‘Who are you?’ the camera turns to reveal Poirot – ‘probably the greatest detective in the world’. In the photo above, the characters from left to right are:

(1) Hollywood veteran Dafoe as Prof Hardman;

(2) Sergei Polunin is mysterious aristocrat Count Rudolph Andrenyi;

(3) Penelope Cruz as Spanish missionary Miss Estravados;

(4) Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is Cuban charmer Biniamino Marquez;

(5) Britain’s Miss Ridley plays governess Miss Debenham.

Sir Kenneth Branagh in the film

Sir Kenneth Branagh in the film

(6) Leslie Odom Jr is soldier Colonel John Arbuthnot; 

(7) Dame Judi Dench plays imperious Princess Natalia Dragomiroff; 

(8) Michelle Pfeiffer is ageless stage diva Caroline Hubbard; 

(9) Josh Gad is Hector MacQueen, Mr Ratchett’s secretary;

(10) Sir Derek Jacobi plays the murdered man’s valet.

Directed by Sir Kenneth, Murder On The Orient Express will be released in the UK on November 3.

Comments 58

Share what you think

  View all

The comments below have not been moderated.

  View all

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.