In terms of sheer edge-of-your-seat excitement, George Miller’s Mad Max should be regarded as one of the greatest movie franchises in history. The filmmaker has never been interested in complex mythologies, intricate worldbuilding, lengthy monologues or layered character development. Rather, it’s always been the propulsive action that’s grabbed viewers by the collar from the very first minute and refused to let go.
Each film in Miller’s original trilogy starring Mel Gibson unfolded over the space of a few days, such was the urgency in Max Rockatansky’s mission each time. Much like the director himself, the title hero isn’t interested in getting bogged down with subplots and side quests, he just wants to get from point A to point B as quickly as he can with as few distractions as possible.
It’s a method that’s served the series very well over the last four decades, but Miller has revealed that upcoming prequel Furiosa will rip up the playbook and tell a story that spans many years across the length and breadth of the Mad Max timeline.
“I didn’t set out to make a big, epic movie. It’s a story I wanted to tell. But as it turns out, it’s just got a lot of different scenes. The one thing I can say about it is, Fury Road happened over three days and two nights, but this is a saga. It happens over many years. So there’s a lot of different elements to it. Since we started II think there’s been six different regimes at Warner Bros. Now it’s stabilized very much and they’re able to basically pay attention coherently to the films they want to make and this is one of them. You try to make films that are ‘uniquely familiar’. This will be familiar to those people who know Mad Max, and in particular Fury Road, but also it will be unique.”
Golden Globe winning The Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy is on board to play the title role, stepping in for Fury Road‘s Charlize Theron, who admitted she wasn’t best pleased at being replaced for Furiosa. Then again, it’s a prequel and Taylor-Joy is 20 years younger, so it’s not as if she’d have been too surprised by the news.
Chris Hemsworth and Aquaman‘s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II are also on board, although their roles remain under wraps for now, but Mad Max: Furiosa is set to start shooting in Australia over the next few months, which means further casting and plot developments shouldn’t be too far away from being made public. Watch this space for more.