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Lucas Till as Angus "Mac" MacGyver: Mac is a highly intelligent and incredibly resourceful U.S. operative who works for the Phoenix Foundation, a covert agency operating under the guise of a think tank. Trained as an EOD technician for the U.S. Army, Mac prefers to use non-lethal means to stop his enemies; he is never without his trusty Swiss Army knife and has the uncanny ability to use anything in his environment to his advantage. He is very proficient in chemistry, applied physics and engineering. At the end of season two, he learns that his absent father, James MacGyver, is Oversight—the man who oversees the Phoenix Foundation. Mac then leaves the Phoenix because of his lack of trust in its leadership. He eventually returns after realizing how much they need his skill set.

George Eads as Jack Dalton (seasons 1–3): Mac's partner in the field and a former Delta Force operator. Jack's history with Mac goes back to his days in the Army and, unlike Mac, he is not afraid to use guns in the field. He also has history with Riley, because he was once in a relationship with her mother and had an altercation with her deadbeat father. While mostly easy-going and laid-back, Jack can get serious when the situation calls for it and often calls upon his special operations training to help the team get out of a tight spot. Midway through season 3, at the end of "Father + Bride + Betrayal", Jack leaves the Phoenix to track Tiberius Kovac, a terrorist thought to have been killed years earlier. In season 5's "Jack + Kinematics + Safe Cracker + MgKNO3 + GTO", it was revealed that Jack had been killed in action while trying to apprehend Kovac.

Tristin Mays as Riley Davis: A tough-as-nails, sarcastic hacker who is hired by the Phoenix Foundation as their cyber specialist. Riley was originally in prison for trying to hack the NSA in order to save her mother from a reclusive hacktivist group. She had a strained relationship with Jack because he vanished from her and her mother's lives after an altercation with her abusive father, but now views Jack as a father figure.

Sandrine Holt as Patricia Thornton (season 1): Initial Director of Field Operations at the Phoenix Foundation and, in Mac's own words, the most successful clandestine operative in U.S. history. By the book and serious most of the time, Thornton regularly assigns the team their missions. In the 12th episode, "Screwdriver", she is discovered to be a mole working for the Organization and arrested.

Justin Hires as Wilt Bozer: Mac's best friend whom he has known since childhood. He is initially a struggling film director possessing several artistic talents. His ability to create lifelike masks and facial prosthetics gets him hired at the Phoenix Foundation, working primarily in robotics. Bozer is a source of comic relief and, in the 1st season, helps Riley in exchange for getting her phone number one digit at a time. When Bozer undergoes training at the Operative Training Center, he falls for fellow recruit Leanna Martin.

Meredith Eaton as Matilda "Matty" Webber: Thornton's replacement as Director of Operations at Phoenix Foundation and Jack's ex-boss from the CIA. It is revealed in season 3's "Scavengers + Hard Drive + Dragonfly" that she is married, but has not worn a wedding ring since her husband, Ethan Reigns, went on a deep undercover assignment.

Isabel Lucas as Samantha Cage (season 2), CIA officer and formerly of SASR 4th Squadron. After she is discharged from the CIA for her unsanctioned actions in the second season premiere, Matty recruits her into the Phoenix Foundation. In the episode "Bullet + Pen", she is ambushed and shot by Murdoc, an assassin who is one of MacGyver's main enemies, in her apartment, but survives and returns home to her native Australia to recover.

Levy Tran as Desiree "Desi" Nguyen (seasons 4–5; recurring season 3), Desi is a new recruit for the Phoenix Foundation who takes over for Jack after he leaves. Though she does things differently than Jack, she seems to be equally effective. She is skilled in six martial arts, and very adept at hand-to-hand combat. The fourth season premiere reveals that Desi and Mac had a brief romantic relationship that ended badly. Their romance is rekindled in season 5.

Henry Ian Cusick as Russell "Russ" Taylor (seasons 4–5), is an Ex-MI6 Agent. Before joining the Phoenix, he worked as a Private Military Contractor and managed Spearhead Operations. Described as a master manipulator and salesman, Russ is skilled in propaganda and lie detection, and boasts an extremely high emotional intelligence. He is also very wealthy, and thus is used to both getting his way and enjoying the spoils of war (including expensive suits, fast cars, private jets and a house in Monte Carlo). The events of the fourth season portray Russ as being obsessed with destroying Codex, with him later revealing that Codex approached him for recruitment several years ago.

Recurring

Tracy Spiridakos as Nikki Carpenter (season 1), an undercover CIA operative who formerly worked as a hacker for DXS until she faked her own death. She is also Mac's ex-girlfriend.

Amy Acker as Sarah Adler (season 1), a CIA operative and Jack's ex-girlfriend

David Dastmalchian as Murdoc (seasons 1–3 & 5), an assassin who described himself as one of the best in the world. When he was first introduced, he was referred to as Suspect 218, which is a nod to the original series. Originally, Murdoc was hired to kill Mac, but frequently targeted other members of the Phoenix Foundation after developing a fascination with the group since they are the first ones to survive his attempts to kill them. He is at first thought to have been sent by Nikki, but is later revealed to have been sent by Thornton. Murdoc is especially obsessed with Mac as he sees him as an equal and a "friend."

Aina Dumlao as Andie Lee (seasons 1–2): Andie Lee was the personal assistant of Patricia Thornton (Sandrine Holt), Director of Field Operations for the DXS and the Phoenix Foundation during the first half of season. She was present when Thornton’s successful career and highest respect in the governmental ranks abruptly ended when she was revealed to be the mole known as ‘Chrysalis’ and arrested for treason in Episode 1×12 (Screwdriver). Thornton was later replaced by Matty Webber (Meredith Eaton) whom Andie continued to work for into early season 2.

Kate Bond as Jill Morgan: A forensics expert at the Phoenix Foundation. The team members occasionally ask her for help on personal missions. She is seen leading a task force to help capture Murdoc in the third season premiere. Murdoc kills her at the end of the episode.

Lauren Vélez as Cassandra Glover (season 2), a coordinator for Operative Training Center

Reign Edwards as Leanna Martin (seasons 2–3), a recruit at the Operative Training Center. Bozer meets and becomes good friends with Leanna, later leading to a romantic relationship that they try to keep secret. In the season 2 finale, Leanna is hired by the Phoenix Foundation. In the fifth season episode "Diamond + Quake + Carbon + Comms + Tower", it is revealed that she was killed on a mission six months prior, a fact that Russ had hidden from Bozer.

William Baldwin as Elwood Davis (seasons 2–3), Riley's estranged father

Lance Gross as Billy Colton (seasons 1–3), a member of the Colton bounty hunting family who becomes a love interest of Riley's. Riley breaks up with him after she discovers, on a mission, that Billy was cheating on her.

Sheryl Lee Ralph as Mama Colton (seasons 1–3), Billy's mother and the head of the Colton bounty hunting family

Emerson Brooks as Charlie Robinson (seasons 1–3), Mac's old war pal who is now a bomb squad specialist. He was killed by Elliot Mason in Season 3.

Tate Donovan as James MacGyver/"Oversight" (seasons 2–4), Mac's father who had mysteriously disappeared from his life. He was first introduced in Season 2, and he and Mac slowly developed a relationship again. In Season 3, it was revealed that Oversight had cancer. Oversight was killed after he manually detonated an explosive at Codex headquarters in Season 4, just after he revealed his cancer had returned.

Sibongile Mlambo as Nasha (season 3), Mac's ex-girlfriend whom he met in Nigeria after briefly leaving the Phoenix Foundation

Brendan Hines as Ethan Reigns (season 3), Matty's husband who went deep undercover for eight years shortly after their marriage. It's revealed in season 3 that, to keep his cover, Ethan married another woman and had a child with her.

Peter Weller as Elliot Mason (seasons 3–5), a former military special ops officer and former FBI agent who holds a grudge against James MacGyver for supposedly causing the death of Mason's son

Leonardo Nam as Aubrey (season 4), Riley's brief love interest, who breaks up with her after Riley reveals where she really works

Jeri Ryan as Gwendolyn "Gwen" Hayes (season 4), MacGyver's aunt (his mother's sister); an ex-DXS agent who was presumed dead, but is now a high-ranking official within Codex

Amber Skye Noyes as Scarlett (season 4), a Codex soldier

Zach McGowan as Roman (seasons 4–5), a Codex soldier

Alexandra Grey as Parker Phillips (season 5), the newest engineer at Phoenix Foundation

Casting

In March 2016, Lucas Till was announced as the new MacGyver, Joshua Boone as Gunner, MacGyver's best friend from high school, alongside former and longtime CSI star George Eads as Jack Dalton, who was originally named Lincoln, a man who could easily be written off as an eccentric conspiracy theorist but is a legitimate government employee with great capability for compassion. Later cast were Addison Timlin as Mickey, an app developer who is aggressively progressive in her political views but who has a soft spot for MacGyver, and Michelle Krusiec as Agent Croix, Dalton's sister who works for the Department of Homeland Security. However, the original pilot with this casting was scrapped by CBS in June 2016—a new pilot episode was ordered with only Till and Eads from the original cast continuing on to the revised version of the show.

Around the same time the new pilot was ordered, Justin Hires was cast as Wilt Bozer, MacGyver's roommate who is an aspiring filmmaker. In July 2016, Variety reported that Sandrine Holt had been cast as Patricia Thornton, an ex-field agent who was the director of operations for the Department of External Services, and that Tristin Mays was cast as Riley Davis, a highly unpredictable computer hacker with a chip on her shoulder. Lenkov and Wan said that same month that they wanted to cast Richard Dean Anderson, the original MacGyver actor, into the new show, stating "we’re all MacGyver fanatics so we’re hoping to get him on the show and have him be on this incarnation."

On November 26, 2018, it was announced that George Eads was set to depart the series midway through the show's third season. According to creator Peter M. Lenkov, Eads had asked to be released from his contract for some time so he could spend more time with his young daughter who resides in Los Angeles; the series is filmed in Atlanta. Producers ultimately agreed with Eads being written out of the show but left the opportunity for him to return as a guest star in the future. His final episode aired on February 1, 2019. Eads' character was killed offscreen in the fifth season episode "Jack + Kinematics + Safe Cracker + MgKNO3 + GTO", ruling out any further opportunities for Eads to reprise the role.

Critical response

MacGyver received generally a mixed opinion from television critics, with many comparing it poorly to the original and some praising and criticizing CBS for making it an updated show. Rotten Tomatoes shows a 25% rating for Season 1, with the site's critical consensus reading, "Despite using spare parts from countless successful TV procedurals, the new MacGyver fails to cobble together a compelling show." Metacritic gives a score of 38 out of 100, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

USA Today wrote: "If... you're looking for something approaching the original's simple DIY charms—or, for that matter, something even marginally original—look elsewhere. What you're getting here is a factory-made retread that is less MacGyver than MacGyver: Impossible, with the title character now just one member of an impossible mission team.... MacGyver may not fully engage you, but at least it won't actively annoy you."

IGN's verdict was: "CBS' MacGyver is an unnecessary, middling reboot that has little to offer—its biggest sin being a bland hero and eye-rolling stakes. Lifting more than a few swerves from the Mission Impossible franchise, this new MacGyver somehow even manages to make the science gimmick dull."

Movie Pilot was more positive, commending Till's performance, while noting that the show does a good job of "maintaining the essence of the original while appealing to a modern generation".

Irish Film Critic stated being satisfied with the reboot: "Season 1 introduced us to the new characters and while it took some getting used to, after years of watching Richard Dean Anderson doing his thing, about halfway through season 1, I was finally able to accept Lucas Till as the new MacGyver. He is charming, charismatic, and when it calls for it, courageous, at times, putting his own life over that of everyone around him. The chemistry between the entire main cast is obvious and everyone has their own individual idiosyncrasies and character traits but never is it more evident than when they're all together. Over time, they have become a family as a result of their trials, tribulations, and missions and usually with the closing of each episode, they rendezvous at Mac and Bozer's place in the Hollywood Hills, share a laugh, have a beer, and generally, try to keep a positive outlook on what is to come.

Exactly what a family is supposed to do."

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