This summer’s Furiosa, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, has a story that spans 15 years, leading directly into Mad Max: Fury Road, says George Miller.
Given the truly awe-inspiring crashes and bangs director George Miller splashed across the screen in his pop-art masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road, it’s hardly surprising that his prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, is among our most anticipated films of 2024.
In a new cover feature in the latest Empire magazine, Miller has contrasted his latest post-apocalyptic opus with 2015’s Fury Road. Where Fury Road took place over three days, Miller explained, Furiosa will span 15 years, following the earlier years of Furiosa (here played by Anya Taylor-Joy, taking over from Charlize Theron).
“Fury Road, the story unfolds over three days and two nights,” Miller told Empire (which comes to us via World of Reel). “This film [Furiosa] follows the story that runs directly into Fury Road, for 15 years. It’s a different animal. It’s got many different locations. It’s an odyssey. No question.”
Furiosa will follow the title heroine’s progress from her early years in an idyll called The Green Place, and explores how she wound up in the clutches of the tyrannical Immortan Joe (played by the late Hugh Keays-Byrne in Fury Road.
There’s no word yet on who’ll play the younger Immortan Joe, though we do know that Chris Hemsworth will be playing a biker warlord named Dementus, Nathan Jones will be reprising his role from Fury Road as Rictus Erectus, and that Darcy Bryce will be playing a character called Pissboy. Miller always was good at coming up with memorable names.
As for Mad Max himself, Miller wouldn’t be drawn on whether Tom Hardy will reprise his role in the film, but did tease that “Max is lurking there in the background.”
By the sounds of things, filming on Furiosa was far less eventful than Mad Max: Fury Road, which was beset by feuds between its stars, a production that had to be shut down and relocated more than once due to weather problems, and a schedule which required the cast and crew to spend around nine months in the desert.
The results were arguably worth the hardship; here’s hoping Furiosa captures at least some of its mad brilliance.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is out in UK cinemas on 24th May 2024.
