Mad Max director George Miller is back again, talking about the next films he wants to make in that franchise. While doing so, he discussed the true star of 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road -- guitar guy, aka Coma-Doof Warrior, or Coma The Doof Warrior, which is his actual name, although guitar guy/dude just sounds better to me.
The scene-stealing character got his own backstory and there's still hope that he'll find a way into the next movies.
George Miller told Deadline he's "not done with the Mad Max story," as he's mentioned several times before, adding, "there's certainly another Mad Max coming down the pike after this."
So, in theory, Coma could possibly return. George Miller has even talked about it before, potentially bringing back this character in the next Mad Max sequel.
Deadline asked about the chances of Coma returning in another Mad Max movie. In his response, Miller delved deep into the character's history:
I would like to think he’s still alive, somehow. In fact, we’ve got a whole backstory on how he came to be in that position. I often think about it. The approach to the film was, you have to be able to explain everything. Not only all the characters, but every object, how it all found its way into this world and how it survived. In his case, he was blind from birth. When things started going a bit crazy, he and his mother were left in a mining town. The only way they could survive was to go into a place where there was a competitive advantage to being blind. And that was to go deep down into a mine shaft where they were able to survive. He took what was most precious to him, a musical instrument, probably a guitar.
I love when seemingly minor movie characters have entire backstories. George Miller continued, explaining how The Doof Warrior ended up on Immortan Joe’s side of things in Mad Max: Fury Road:
As they were careening through the wasteland, someone heard this music echoing out of that mine shaft, went down there and luckily they saw him as an asset. I think they killed his mother because she wasn’t of any use. They took him and he eventually ended up as the equivalent of the drummer, the fife player or the bagpiper, in Immortan Joe’s army.
I love it. And it's not like George Miller came up with that on the fly, he gave guitar dude's backstory to Australian-based musician iOTA, who played the character in Mad Max: Fury Road.
In 2015, iOTA told Audiences Everywhere he got the job through a basic screen test with his agency.
The brief was… they were looking for a guitarist somewhere between Keith Richards and a scarecrow. I dressed up in my best Mad Max outfit, and I hailed a cab, took my guitar in there, and played a tune. A very loud, angry tune. And I got the part.
Here's what he was told about Coma-Doof Warrior's backstory:
Yeah. I knew that George had said that Coma was found by Immortan Joe in a Cave and taken under his wing and he learned to be a musician. I kind of embellished that for myself. Basically, my story was that Coma was found with his mother’s head, after she had been killed, and he was clinging to it and Immortan Joe came and found him and Coma took her face off and made the mask out of her face, to honor her when he went to war.
The exact backstory may change with each retelling. It's been almost five years now since Mad Max: Fury Road came out, and even though George Miller was just talking a couple of months ago about having two more Mad Max sequels still in his head, there's still that profit lawsuit against studio Warner Bros. But recent comments from Warner Bros. suggest the studio is game to return for more too, so maybe things can actually be worked out. Up to this point, there's just been a lot of talk and hope for sequels but a legal battle is quite an adversary.
As we wait for Warner Bros. and George Miller to ever finally announce they are actively filming the next Mad Max movie, and not just talking about making the next Mad Max movie, keep up with everything heading to the big screen next year with our 2020 movie release date schedule.
Would you want to see Coma return in whatever is next for the Mad Max franchise?
