In 2015, coming off of Happy Feet Two, 70-year-old director George Miller delivered one of the greatest action films of all time with Mad Max: Fury Road. Since that film came out, racking up critical acclaim and 6 Oscar wins, audiences have been wondering if Miller would ever return to that post-apocalyptic world for a sequel. It turns out that the director has two more Mad Max sequels in his head, as he explained:
There are two stories, both involving Mad Max, and also a Furiosa story. We’re still solving, we’ve got to play out the Warners thing, it seems to be pretty clear that it’s going to happen.
While I think many would be happy with just one more Mad Max movie from George Miller, it seems that the director has two different stories about Max Rockatansky in his head that could be told in two sequels. George Miller also has a story about Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa in mind, which would seemingly be an entirely separate film from the Mad Max sequels.
This is basically in keeping with what we’ve heard from the director in the past. George Miller has previously spoken about how the various production delays on Fury Road allowed him and writer Nick Lathouris to explore the backstory of the film and write two other stories.
We don’t know the details of the stories of these sequels, although insane action seems pretty much guaranteed. One of the Mad Max sequels had been called Mad Max: The Wasteland, but that was just a working title. A possible prequel for Charlize Theron’s breakout character Furiousa has also been brought up in the past with the actress seeming totally down to do it.
So George Miller could make another three movies to follow Mad Max: Fury Road just based on the ideas he has racing around in his head. But an idea is a far cry from a production start date so will these movies happen, and if so, when? On that matter, George Miller seems optimistic.
The director told IndieWire that it is pretty clear that more Mad Max is going to happen, but first he’s got to play out the Warners thing. What he’s referring to there is the lawsuit his production company, Kennedy Miller Mitchell, filed against Warner Bros. It all stems from a $7 million bonus George Miller and the production were to be owed should the film’s final cost come in under a certain amount.
That bonus has not been paid and the point of contention seems to be with how the film’s budget was calculated. There are other aspects to it as well and Warner Bros. has filed a cross-lawsuit against Kennedy Miller Mitchell. Yet despite these contentious legal matters, George Miller sounds optimistic that things will work out and they can proceed together to make more Mad Max movies.
Warner Bros. too seems to be very interested in more Mad Max as well with now former Warner Bros. head Kevin Tsujihara expressing the studio’s interest in working with George Miller to further the franchise. Before that can happen though George Miller is making a fantasy romance film starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton titled Three Thousand Years of Longing.
It’s nice to hear that George Miller is still toying around with sequel ideas and his positive attitude about them actually happening is incredibly encouraging for fans of his masterwork Mad Max: Fury Road.
We’ll keep you updated on what the future holds for Mad Max and Imperator Furiosa as we hear about it. In the meantime check out our 2019 Release Schedule to know what movies are headed your way in the coming months.
