“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” isn’t due in theaters until the beginning of the summer. However, given that it is most likely making its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in mid-May, the promotional machine for the George Miller-directed film is already underway. On the cover of Empire this month, Miller revealed all kinds of little details about the film, such as that it spans 15 years of Furiosa’s life (now played by Anya Taylor-Joy, as it is a prequel) and the qualities of the villain (played by Chris Hemsworth). But there’s more.
A prequel to “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which starred Tom Hardy as Max and Charlize Theron as Furiosa, the two films were developed at the same time. Empire reveals that Theron read the “Furiosa” while she was getting ready to make ‘Fury Road,’ and nearly begged Miller to do it first because she was such a fan of the screenplay.
“She said, ‘Please, George, can we make this first?’” Miller laughed. “It was the first time I realized that there’s something really strong in this story.” The filmmaker previously revealed he had initially just written it to understand her backstory.
Anya Taylor-Joy has said that Theron has been very stand-up and cool about handing the character off, as much as she was desperate to play her again. “She’s been so classy and kind in letting me go and do it,” Taylor-Joy told Empire. “But I feel very lucky that, from the second I read the script, I just knew this person. I felt so fiercely protective over Furiosa and fiercely protective of her interests.”
What about the Mad Max of it all? Will Tom Hardy appear in the movie at some point, perhaps de-aged or seen as a younger version of the character?
“I won’t give away too much about that,” Miller teased. “All I’ll say is, Max is lurking there in the background.”
That’s vague enough to go either way, really. Mad Max certainly is in the fabric of that same story somewhere, either way, as we know. But whether Hardy reprises the role or he’s recast younger, we’ll have to wait and see though that does sound like a quality tease.
As for the aforementioned Chris Hemsworth and his Warlord Dementus bad guy, the actor tells Empire, “He’s a pretty horrible individual. [Throughout] the whole film, we kept coming back to, ‘This is evil, but what is the intention behind it?’ It’s not just sadistic insanity. There is a real purpose, the wheels are turning, he’s plotting and planning and ten steps ahead of everyone else.”
Even as the cruel antagonist, the character evidently views himself as a father figure to Furiosa.
“I think that’s how he sees himself,” Hemsworth said. “I think there’s a paternal quality and nature to the relationship in his eyes. [Furiosa] would, I’m sure, argue to her death the complete opposite.”
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is in theaters May 24, but given the first one debuted at Cannes out of competition, and Miller is a beloved figure there, it’s almost undouble we’ll hear all about it earlier that month in France on the Croisette.
