A Million Ways to Die in the West: Watch the raunchy trailer for Seth MacFarlane's western-comedy

Forty years after the release of Blazing Saddles, the Ted director is bringing the western-comedy back to Hollywood

West
(Image credit: YouTube)

If you're not normally into westerns, Seth MacFarlane — who co-wrote, directed, and stars in the upcoming A Million Ways to Die in the West — would like you to know that he agrees with you. "The American West is a terrible place in time," says MacFarlane in the red-band trailer for the upcoming film. "Everything that's out here that's not you wants to kill you. Angry drunk people. Hungry animals. Outlaws. The f---ing doctor."

A Million Ways to Die in the West promises to bring MacFarlane's distinctive brand of raunchy humor to one of Hollywood's most underutilized genres. The obvious touchstone for MacFarlane's movie is Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles, which similarly parodied the conventions of the western genre. And if you took Blazing Saddles, blended it with Ted, and threw in a bunch of celebrities, you'd probably end up with something that looks a lot like this trailer.

MacFarlane leads an impressive cast that includes Charlize Theron, Neil Patrick Harris, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, and Liam Neeson as a legendary outlaw. "Somebody in this town is going to die," promises Neeson. When McFarlane's meek sheep farmer finds himself cast as the town's hero, he teams up with Theron in an attempt to learn gunslinging before it's too late.

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Westerns aren't exactly the most reliable genre at the box office right now, with last year's The Lone Ranger standing out as a particularly memorable and costly misfire. Will Seth MacFarlane's raunchy riff on the genre be enough to get audiences back in the saddle? We'll find out when A Million Ways to Die in the West hits theaters in May.

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Scott Meslow

Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.