While it made $65 million dollars worldwide in its global opening, it’s fair to say that the domestic opening for “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” at $32 million, was underwhelming and, worrisomely, might be the end of the ‘Mad Max’ franchise. Then again, “Mad Max: Fury Road” never opened up substantially higher, only earning $45 million in its early May debut in 2015. Whatever the case may be, ‘Furiosa’ filmmaker George Miller has been doing the press rounds and, in a recent episode of Happy Sad Confused, mentioned a few tidbits about the making of the movie (unfortunately, no one seemed to have asked about “Mad Max 4” with Heath Ledger, that never came to pass, and what that plan might have been alas).
READ MORE: ‘The Wasteland’: George Miller’s Next ‘Mad Max’ Film Is A “Saga” Similar To ‘Furiosa’
While it doesn’t sound like she was ever super firmly in the running, Miller did confirm one casting rumor, sort of, and admitted he spoke to “Killing Eve” star Jodie Comer for the Furiosa’ role, but very early on and just in loose exploratory talks that never amounted into much.
“We spoke to her, but I think that was quite a bit before… the movie hadn’t [been formed], I was still preparing to do ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing,’ but it wasn’t until we got serious that we got Anya,” Miller explained, recalling also that Edgar Wright was one of the fellow filmmaking friends that touted Taylor-Joy’s skills and encouraged him to cast her should she ever need a part for a young actress. And it turns out he did.
A mild *spoiler alert*, but Mad Max himself has a small cameo in ‘Furiosa,’ observing some of the happenings in the film from afar, but Miller said, no, there was never a plan to get Tom Hardy for the cameo, and in part, because they were shooting during COVID and the practicalities of that would have been impossible.
“No, just in terms of the logistics of it,” he explained. “Again, we were shooting during COVID, and Jacob Tomuri, a wonderful stuntman from New Zealand, did so much brilliant work with Tom [Hardy]—he did some other stunt sequences in the movie—and I thought, ’Oh, he’s here, and he certainly knows the character and looks the part for the shot, but no we didn’t think in terms of [asking] Tom.”
And finally, the last little tidbit that Miller revealed is yes, just like ‘Fury Road,’ a chrome black and white edition of ‘Furiosa’ will be released at some point, presumably on the DVD.
“We’ve done it already; it’s the last thing I did on this film, and I call it tinted black and chrome,” he explained. “I’m still trying to demystify why the black and white, for me, has something more elemental to it; I still quite can’t put my finger on it.”
Miller recently clarified that he currently has one more Mad Max script idea, tentatively called “The Wasteland,” it would center on Tom Hardy’s Max character, one year before the events of ‘Fury Road,’ but given the underwhelming box office of ‘Furiosa,’ it’s unclear if that’ll ever get made.
Who knows, though? Again, ‘Fury Road’ only ever opened to $45 million in the U.S. and only grossed $153 domestically, and it got a sequel. The film hit about $380 million worldwide, however, and it’s uncertain at the moment if ‘Furiosa’ will have the legs to inch towards that figure in the end. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” is in theaters now via Warner Bros.
