Shiny and chrome! The long-rumored Furiosa, a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, is moving forward with a cast announced and George Miller taking both co-writing and directing duties. The film focuses on action star Charlize Theron’s iconic, groundbreaking character Furiosa from the original film. Theron, however, will not be taking on the role again as Anya Taylor-Joy (The New Mutants, Split, The Witch) steps in to play a younger Imperator Furiosa in a film described to be a stand-alone origin story for the character. Joining Taylor-Joy for the movie will be Chris Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, though it is unknown what roles they will play.
This will be the first Mad Max film without the titular character involved, though it’s easy to argue that Mad Max: Fury Road was indeed not his movie either. The Academy Award-winning film was a massive hit and is lauded as one of the best action movies ever made. Miller’s stunning direction, genre-busting screenplay, and reliance on physical effects over CGI delivered a near-perfect film that he and Warner Bros. wanted to follow up on quickly. However, legal arguments delayed future production for a while. Those have now passed and the studio and director seem set to move forward with the film, which is in “advanced development.”
The movie has not been officially greenlit though, so there is still a slim chance that it doesn’t happen. There’s also no set timetable on when production will start, especially with COVID-19 still causing issues in the film industry. Not to worry, there’s still the original to rewatch and discover new things about.
