Things Are Looking Up For The Mad Max: Fury Road Furiosa Prequel
Long-time director George Miller rebooted his Mel Gibson-starring action franchise Mad Max in 2015 with Mad Max: Fury Road. Gibson was replaced by Tom Hardy in the title role, and the new Mad Max received acclaim from both critics and fans alike. But it's been six years since, and people are thirsty for more.
In an interview with The New York Times in May 2020, Miller revealed that he planned to return to the world of Mad Max, but not with Max — at least not immediately. No, the perhaps unsurprising stand-out star of Fury Road wasn't Max himself, but his uneasy partner, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Unlike Max, Furiosa works for the water-hoarding Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Her choice to betray Joe and save his concubines from enslavement resonated with people watching Fury Road, and so Miller decided that the next Mad Max movie would be a Furiosa prequel.
While Theron may return in later sequels, Miller felt that a Furiosa prequel would require a younger actor in the role, someone in their 20s. In October 2020, Miller revealed he'd found that someone in the form of Queen's Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy.
And now there is even more exciting news about the future of the Mad Max franchise.
Production for the Furiosa prequel is set to begin soon and that's a big deal
Per Variety, Anya Taylor-Joy will be joined in the Furiosa prequel by both Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Star Trek) and Yahya Abdul Mateen II (Aquaman, Watchmen). As of now, the prequel is set for a June 2023 release date. That may sound like it's a long way away, but the good news is that we're going to start hearing more news about Furiosa soon.
According to TV Black Box, production for Furiosa is set to begin in New South Wales, Australia, in June 2021. And the reason why filming is beginning so early is because that's how long it takes to get a Mad Max movie done. Fury Road began its production in June 2012, but didn't see release until May 2015.
Filming two years ahead of Furiosa's scheduled release should guarantee that the date stays firm. And, yes, that also means we'll start seeing set photos, interviews, and all sorts of previews for Furiosa in just a few short months — certainly something to look forward to after six years in the desert without Mad Max in our lives.