Furiosa Director George Miller Has One More Mad Max Prequel Up His Sleeve
Every passing day brings us closer to director George Miller fulfilling a dream that has been decades in the making, but is that truly the end of the story? Long before he ever unleashed "Mad Max: Fury Road" upon unsuspecting audiences in 2015, as revealed in author Kyle Buchanan's excellent making-of book titled "Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road," Miller's extensive backstory for the legendary Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) ultimately led to tentative plans for an entire prequel film down the line. That time has finally come in the form of the upcoming "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, giving us a definitive origin for the fearsome and scene-stealing hero while putting a button on what's sure to be one heck of an action duology ... or so we thought.
Miller might be 79 years young, but that doesn't mean he intends to cease playing in this sandbox anytime soon. 35 years after the original "Mad Max" came to theaters, the franchise is still going strong — and will continue to do so, if the visionary filmmaker gets his way. In a new cover story over at Entertainment Weekly, Miller has teased his future plans for this saga, which seems to involve the return of the eponymous Max Rockatansky. According to the director, this has been in the works since before "Fury Road" ever released:
"In doing what we did in the preparation of 'Mad Max: Fury Road,' we also wrote what happened to Max in the year before we encounter him in [that film]."
While Miller could theoretically fold this idea into the events of "Furiosa," maybe one prequel just isn't enough. Why not turn this into another film? Well, as luck would have it ...
George Miller teases a Furiosa sequel
While many would contend that we never truly needed a Furiosa origin story, George Miller has earned the benefit of the doubt five times over by now. And if he has the desire to make yet another "Mad Max" prequel movie, well, who are any of us mere mortals to say otherwise? While talking to Entertainment Weekly, the "Fury Road" mastermind opened up about his ideas for another installment in the shiny and chrome franchise. After previously hinting at the idea that Tom Hardy's Max could be "lurking in the background" of "Furiosa," Miller went a step further and pitched his vision for a possible sequel set a year prior to the events of "Fury Road":
"Basically, we had to see that Mad Max was lurking around somewhere because we do know what happened. The writers know what happened to Mad Max in that year before, and we have a whole story of that, which I would like to do sometime if I get the chance."
Dear Warner Bros: I believe I speak for all of us when I say to give him the chance! Interestingly enough, this actually lines up with past statements that Miller has made, when he told The Independent in 2017 about two scripts he already penned with co-writer Nico Lathouris: one that became "Furiosa," and another tentatively titled "The Wasteland" — which may be precisely the movie featuring a pre-"Fury Road" Max that he's referring to here. As he put it at the time, "Somewhere, if the planets align, there will be two other films." It's unexpected enough that Miller turned a Furiosa-centric script into reality, so perhaps he'll pull another rabbit out of a hat with "The Wasteland."
Until then, catch "Furiosa" in theaters May 24, 2024.