George Miller Says Mad Max Is 'Lurking In The Background' Of Furiosa

"Furiosa: A Mad Max Story." "Mad Max Presents: Furiosa." "Furiosa: A Knives Out Mystery." Okay, that last one was never going to happen, but you get the point. Sequels and prequels these days tend to have a #branding problem in the minds of most marketing teams, especially since we're living through a glut of franchises and IPs — all of which would give anything to have the same sort of pop-culture cachet as the term "Marvel movies." When it comes to "Furiosa," the follow-up to the 2015 action masterpiece that sadly didn't perform at the box office nearly as well as its reputation might suggest, the studio ultimately landed on "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga." That isn't too bad (as far as these things go, at least) and one would think that'll help the prequel fare better in theaters than its predecessor did, but new comments by returning writer/director George Miller seem to indicate that it'll be living up to that subtitle in a big way.

Other than the first (and, so far, only) trailer released late last year, we've had very little of substance to go on as far as details on "Furiosa" are concerned. But perhaps the information dam is finally breaking, thanks to a new Empire magazine cover story filled with a handful of intriguing tidbits. For starters, it's now confirmed that the origin story for Imperator Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron in the previous movie and now portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy) will take place over 15 years, as opposed to the handful of days that "Fury Road" was set. That much was pretty obvious from the trailer, however. What the footage noticeably lacked was any appearance by Tom Hardy's crazed loner, Max.

Depending on how you interpret Miller's latest comments, that could be changing.

Considering the fact that Tom Hardy's Max was upstaged in his own movie by the sheer, explosive brilliance of Charlize Theron's Furiosa, wouldn't there be a little sense of irony in having Max relegated to a little cameo in the "Furiosa" prequel? That's the first assumption many will make upon reading George Miller's most recent tease for the upcoming film, but maybe we should pump the brakes first (see what I did there?) and carefully parse his actual comments. While talking to Empire, the director let slip one key reveal about what Max might be up to while the events of "Furiosa" are taking place. As he put it in response to a question about Max's whereabouts at the time:

"I won't give away too much about that. All I'll say is, Max is lurking there in the background."

Somebody get Marvel's notoriously tight-lipped Kevin Feige on the phone because this is a masterclass in saying absolutely nothing at all. Obviously, Max is alive and kicking at the same time that the "Furiosa" prequel is set, but everything we saw in "Fury Road" precludes any real meeting between the two characters before they do so in the 2015 film. So if — and that's a big if — Max makes an actual appearance at some point in "Furiosa," that could make things a bit complicated. Of course, Miller could just be saying that Max technically is roaming around somewhere in the distance, but we'll never see him because, frankly, we really don't need to.

So there you have it: Almost 600 words later, we still have very little idea about what's really going down in this movie. If you ask me, that's kind of refreshing, actually. "Furiosa" roars into theaters on May 24, 2024.