‘Furiosa’: George Miller Explains Why He Didn’t Want To De-Age Charlize Theron For His Prequel

Largely beloved upon its arrival in 2015, George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” is now considered a 21^st-century classic. And while the adrenaline-pounding film was supposed to be a Mad Max story, clearly one of the more compelling characters was Charlize Theron’s Furiosa, who went toe to toe with Tom Hardy’s Max in the movie. When Hardy announced a sequel or rather a prequel centered on Furiosa, fans had hoped that Theron would reprise the role; Theron herself was also dying to give the wasteland another try. But in a new interview with IGN, Miller explains why he wasn’t convinced by de-aging technology and decided to recast with Anya Taylor-Joy playing a younger version of the character instead.

READ MORE: Charlize Theron Pleaded To Make ‘Furiosa’ First; George Miller Says Max Is “Lurking” Somewhere In New Film

“It definitely would have been Charlize [had Furiosa been filmed before Fury Road],” Miller explained about the casting change. “I began thinking, ‘Oh, maybe we could do de-aging.’ Then I watched really masterful filmmakers like Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, doing ‘Gemini Man’ and ‘The Irishman,’ and I saw that it hadn’t been licked. All you’d be watching is, ‘Look how well the technology works?’ It would not have been persuasive.”

Miller found the choice difficult, but ultimately, he found Anya Taylor-Joy, the actress known for the Emmy-winning Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit,” to be a perfect fit.

“There’s an innately resolute quality in [Taylor-Joy],” Miller said of finding the right actress for the role. “She’s a very determined and rigorous person. She has a mystique about her. And she’d been trained young as a ballet dancer. Charlize trained young as a ballet dancer. There’s a precision to them that was needed.”

De-aging was common for a moment, circa “The Irishman” and the films that Miller mentions, but it is expensive and has seemingly fallen out of vogue in recent years.

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” will hit theaters on May 24. The newly released introduction scene/trailer below showcases the heroine’s journey from The Green Place of Many Mothers to the brutal landscape of the Citadel, where we see her in “Fury Road.” Watch more below.