Skip to main content

Don’t expect to see more Furiosa in the Mad Max: Fury Road sequel

charlize theron fast 8 version 1455095433 furiosa
Warner Bros.
At this point, it’s a near-universally accepted fact that Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa was the real star of Mad Max: Fury Road, not Tom Hardy’s Max Rockatansky. Anyone hoping to see more of her in the sequel to Fury Road might be disappointed, though, as franchise creator/director George Miller recently indicated that he has no plans to bring Furiosa back for an encore performance.

According to Miller, Theron’s butt-kicking battle-wagon driver could very likely become a one-movie star.

Asked by Digital Spy whether Furiosa will return in the Fury Road sequel — rumored to have the working title Mad Max: The Wasteland — Miller responded with some uncertainty about the character’s fate.

“I’m not sure, is the answer,” he said. “[Furiosa] is not in the Mad Max [sequel] story, but in one of the stories there’s an interaction between [Max and Furiosa]. I can’t really say more than that because it’s still in progress.”

With Fury Road ranking high on quite a few lists of the year’s best movies (so far) and impressive numbers from both movie ticket and DVD/Blu-ray sales, a sequel seems all but assured, but Miller has stopped short of confirming any details about the follow-up to the hit film. Even the film’s title, it seems, is not official at this point.

“That name came out, that was just a working title,” he explained. “[Fury Road co-writer] Nico Lathouris and I wrote deep backstories on all the characters and they eventually became screenplays – so we have two [more movies]. I’m happy to say that there’s discussions about them right now, but I hope the next film I make is very small without any special effects and not many stunts.”

Mad Max: Fury Road arrived on DVD and Blu-ray last month, and will likely be in the running for various technical awards at this year’s Academy Awards. There’s currently no timetable for the film’s sequel to go into production.

Editors' Recommendations

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
Anya Taylor-Joy brings the heat in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’s first trailer
Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

It's not uncommon for directors to lose a step late in their careers. But George Miller seems to be a rare exception. Miller's first feature-length film was actually the first Mad Max in 1979, and he revitalized his career in 2015 with the widely acclaimed sequel, Mad Max: Fury Road. Now, Fury Road is finally getting its prequel spinoff, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. And if the first trailer is any indication, Miller's still got his signature touch at 78 years old.

FURIOSA : A MAD MAX SAGA | OFFICIAL TRAILER #1

Read more
From talking pigs to hot genies: the bold return of George Miller
George Miller stands in front of a Mad Max poster.

Seven years have passed since George Miller reinvigorated the action genre with the breathtaking world-building and chase sequences of Mad Max: Fury Road. After much anticipation, the Australian mastermind behind the blockbuster franchise has finally returned, and it is fair to say his latest work is somewhat out of left field.

Three Thousand Years of Longing is not the long-awaited fifth entry in the Mad Max series, but a self-funded adaptation of The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, a short story by A.S. Byatt. Miller, now 77, has capitalized on the triumphant success of his last film (Fury Road made almost $375 million worldwide and was nominated for 10 Oscars) to make a pure passion project, trading postapocalyptic chaos and crazy cars in the desert for spiritual reminiscence in a hotel room. 
A diverse director with a signature vision
This latest chapter in Miller’s career is not altogether surprising, in the sense that his whole career has been surprising. Longing is just the 11th full-length feature he has directed in 44 years, suggesting a man who chooses his projects with great care. He could be called a franchise specialist; besides the gory Mad Max series, he has also created the Babe series, about a charming talking pig, and the Happy Feet films, where penguins dance and sing classic songs. Outside of that franchise framework, however, he has only helmed the medical drama Lorenzo’s Oil and the fantasy-screwball romp The Witches of Eastwick. Miller has run the gamut, providing something for everybody from young children to macho action junkies to highbrow critics. What unifies all of his work is his visual kineticism and his sense of wonder.

Read more
Three Thousand Years of Longing review: George Miller takes a left turn off Fury Road
Idris Elba pleads with Tilda Swinton.

To what magic lamp, monkey’s paw, or wishing well does George Miller owe his career of improbable dream projects? On and off for decades, this Aussie writer-director and demolition derby-ist has wrangled bountiful resources in pursuit of offbeat glory, splurging top studio dollar on dubiously “family-friendly” menageries and increasingly elaborate dystopias. The pinnacle of his talent for turning a multiplex investment into a madman’s sandbox is, of course, his last movie, the staggering Mad Max: Fury Road, which was essentially a vision of what summer movies can be when made by real artists left to their own lunatic devices. What an impossible movie it was — and a tough act to follow, too.

So how has Miller followed his exhilarating epic of dirt, dust, fire, speed, and mayhem? As it turns out, with a change of pace. His new movie, Three Thousand Years of Longing, is at once vaster and more compact than his last one, trading an endless stretch of desert for a hotel room; a few days of action for a story that literally spans millennia; and a nonstop barrage of vehicular carnage for extended scenes of two characters in bathrobes, politely discussing the true nature of desire over tea and chickpea treats. And yet here, too, is an impossible movie — a strange and bewitching fairy tale for adults, unfashionable in its cerebral whimsy and mid-budget wizardry. You could say that the success of Fury Road paid for this more idiosyncratic fantasy, but that would be akin to arguing that Miller sold a unicorn to buy a leprechaun.

Read more