“Death on the Nile” promises just as much excitement as its predecessor “Murder on the Orient Express,” with which it shares a few connections beyond also being an adaptation of an Agatha Christie mystery. While Kenneth Branagh (who just made Oscar history) reprises his role as private detective Hercule Poirot, he’s surrounded by a new ensemble of famous faces — all of whom are suspects in a new murder.
The story concerns a murder on a passenger ship in Egypt, but if you’re having trouble keeping track of the suspects our complete cast and character guide should be of service. Check it out below. “Death on the Nile” is now playing exclusively in theaters.
Linnet Ridgeway-Doyle (Gal Gadot)
Linnet Ridgeway-Doyle is played by Gal Gadot and is wife to Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer). She plays a key role in the film, and the wealthy English heiress is friends with Jacqueline De Bellefort (Emma Mackey).
Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh)
Poirot is a Belgian detective featured in many of Christie’s other novels, and is once again played by Branagh. He gets involved in the events of the whodunnit story mainly unintentionally, but because he happens to be vacationing in the area, he gets sucked in.
Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer)
Simon is the youngest son of a wealthy family who works a lower wage office job in London because he doesn’t have much money himself. He begins the story engaged to Jacqueline De Bellefort, who asks her friend Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot) to pull some strings for Simon to get a job. In the process of hiring Simon, Linnet falls in love with him, and so he chooses to break off his engagement with Jacqueline to marry Linnet instead.
Jacqueline De Bellefort (Emma Mackey)
A primary antagonist in the novel, De Bellefort used to be friends with Linnet Ridgeway, but that changed when Ridgeway decided she wanted to marry Simon — whom De Bellefort loved — after she offered him a job at De Bellefort’s request. De Bellefort stalks the newly wed Linnet and Simon on their honeymoon.
Louise Bourget (Rose Leslie)
Louise is Linnet’s maid and aid. She comes in handy for Linnet’s travel, as a woman of means.
Rosalie Otterbourne (Letitia Wright)
Rosalie goes on vacation with her mother, Salome. Described as secretive and sulky but also bright and kind-hearted, Rosalie does her best to keep her mother’s secret.
Salome Otterbourne (Sophie Okonedo)
Mrs. Otterbourne is a romance writer and also mother to Rosalie Otterbourne.
Bouc (Tom Bateman)
Bouc is, somewhat surprisingly, another holdover from “Murder on the Orient Express,” Branagh’s 2017 Poirot mystery. Poirot first notices Bouc as he is sightseeing at the pyramids (Bouc is, true to his devil-may-care attitude, flying a kite on the great pyramid). Bouc then invites him into the world of Linnet Ridgeway-Doyle (Gal Gadot) and her new husband Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer). Bouc also serves as a kind of audience surrogate (and Poirot protégé), catching us up on the cast of characters aboard the Karnac – each of them potential murderers … or victims.
Euphemia (Annette Bening)
Annette Bening plays Euphemia, Bouc’s mother, a renowned painter whose palette is expanded by her trip to Egypt. (She even paints the pyramids with her son’s silhouette, a kite dancing against the ancient structures.) She is soon drawn ever deeper into the mystery aboard the Karnak, even while her true intentions remain damnably elusive and obscured, as if by a large dollop of oil paint.
Andrew Katchadourian (Ali Fazal)
Andrew Katchadourian, played by Ali Fazal, is the cousin and lawyer of Linnet Ridgeway-Doyle (Gal Gadot). Andrew’s motives, in particular his insistence on getting some mysterious paperwork signed, are immediately called into question.
Marie Van Schuyle (Jennifer Saunders)
Miss Van Schuyler is a wealthy American Spinster traveling with her nurse and her cousin, with whom she is very strict.
Bowers (Dawn French)
Bowers is the nurse of Miss Van Schuyler. She accompanies the scornful old woman more for caution than anything else. Her neutrality in the story pushes the plot further.
Lord Windlesham (Russell Brand)
Windlesham is an aristocratic doctor who also happens to be the former fiancé of Linnet.
