Chris Hemsworth Wanted To Star In Mad Max: Fury Road Before He Became A Marvel Hero

There's a case to be made that Chris Hemsworth is the most talented of the Marvel Studios Chrises. He's got great comedic energy and leaned into that with his later performances as Thor (even if he admittedly went overboard in "Thor: Love and Thunder"). His vengeance-driven God of Thunder is the highlight of "Infinity War" too.

He's also making interesting career choices. I'm a Captain America fan, but Chris Evans has not challenged himself as an actor since "Snowpiercer." ("Knives Out" was just him dusting off his pre-Cap screen persona of a cocky a-hole.) Chris Pratt has waltzed his way into being Hollywood's leading voice actor despite his anonymous performances in "The Super Mario Brothers" and soon, "The Garfield Movie." Hemsworth takes paycheck gigs (see: "Extraction" and his voice acting turn as young Optimus Prime in "Transformers: One" this coming Summer), but he shows ambition too. In 2017, during Marvel's cultural dominance, he played a creepy Charles Manson-esque cult leader in "Bad Times At The El Royale."

"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" looks to be Hemsworth at his most daring yet. He'll play Dementus, a raging warlord of a biker gang. "Furiosa" is once more directed by "Mad Max" creator George Miller, starring Anya-Taylor Joy as the heroine first played by Charlize Theron in the previous film "Mad Max: Fury Road." In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hemsworth confirmed "Mad Max" is a childhood favorite of his (unlike Taylor-Joy who saw "Fury Road" first in 2015). After all, he's Australian, just like Miller and former series star Mel Gibson. If Hemsworth had his way, he would've been in "Fury Road."

Gibson did not return as "Mad" Max Rockatansky in "Fury Road." The Entertainment Weekly article claims it's because he was deemed too old (being in his mid-50s by the time the movie entered production). Gibson's personal controversies, including some very ugly and public racism, didn't help his case either.

As Hemsworth tells it, he wanted to play Max but at the time ("Fury Road" entered pre-production in 2009), he just wasn't a big enough star. He had a regular role on Australian soap opera "Home and Away" and a small part in 2009's "Star Trek" as George Kirk. With that resume, he "couldn't even get a call or a meeting or anything." Instead, Tom Hardy (who'd made waves in Nicolas Winding Refn's 2008 film "Bronson") played Max. Hemsworth wasn't a sore loser though, and when he watched "Fury Road," it only increased his desire to work with Miller. When "Furiosa" was being made, Hemsworth's star had been lifted by the Mighty Thor. Thus he got the meeting and, ultimately, the job.

Going by the "Furiosa" trailers, it's Dementus and his gang who steal Furiosa from her childhood home, the Green Place. The film could easily pull a fast one on us, but it's looking like Furiosa's main obstacle is not "Fury Road" villain Immortan Joe, but Dementus. Furiosa might even ally with Joe against their common foe, explaining why she's working as his Imperator in "Fury Road" (though she ultimately, and deservedly, betrays and kills him). Can Hemsworth give a heel performance huge enough to eclipse the late Hugh Keays-Byrne, the original Immortan Joe actor in "Fury Road"? We'll know soon.

"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" premieres in U.S. theaters on May 24, 2024.