George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road continues to be one of the most memorable action films of the past decade. The 2015 film brought back the apocalyptic character, originally played by Mel Gibson, with Tom Hardy taking on the role. Though the real highlight of the Oscar-winning film was Charlize Theron’s Furiosa. Miller is now gearing up to make a prequel about the character and it sounds like Hardy is all on board for the imperator to get even more of the spotlight.
Tom Hardy is reportedly not involved in Furiosa. George Miller’s film will instead go back in time before Fury Road and star Anya Taylor-Joy as a younger Furiosa along with Thor’s Chris Hemsworth and Watchmen’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in undisclosed roles. Ahead of Furiosa getting started in Australia, Hardy shared his thoughts on the next Mad Max movie:
That was ultimately Furiosa’s movie, which was fantastic. Fury Road. Furiosa. It was in the title. If you look at it now, it was a changeover of hands in a way, from Mad Max to Furiosa. That’s what they’re filming now. Furiosa. It was a very well-implemented changing of the guard. [Creator George Miller’s] still got Mad Max, but he’s split his feed between two characters, and that’s really, really cool.
As Hardy told Esquire, the plan all along was for Mad Max: Fury Road to usher in a new era for George Miller’s sci-fi franchise. The Venom actor shared his positive feelings about his short-lived role in the Mad Max films acting as a transition for Furiosa to take the lead. Prior to Fury Road, there were three other Mad Max movies and perhaps it’s time for a Furiosa trilogy.
One bummer of Furiosa is Charlize Theron won’t be involved because George Miller was not in favor of using de-aging technology for his movie. Theron spoke out about the decision last summer, sharing it was a “little heartbreaking” for her to know the character was being passed off to a new actress. Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy, who is 21 years younger than Theron, was cast in late 2020 and is stoked to work alongside George Miller.
Furiosa is expected to be a massive production once it does land in Australia. It’s apparently the “biggest movie ever to be made” in the country, so I’d imagine George Miller is planning some huge developments for the imperator. A Furiosa script was reportedly in the works before Miller shot a single scene of Fury Road, so this is a way planned out story the filmmaker has had on his mind for sometime.
George Miller also shared back in 2019 that he has two more sequel ideas beyond Furiosa, involving Mad Max, so who knows, maybe Tom Hardy could return someday to the character as well. Furiosa is set to come out on June 23, 2023. But before then, Hardy’s next film is Venom: Let There Be Carnage hits theaters this October 15.
