admin Assuming the world hasn’t already been rendered a post-apocalyptic, scorched wasteland by May 2024 (fingers crossed!) we’ll finally get a chance to see Furiosa, the nearly-a-decade-in-the-making prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, unequivocally one of the greatest action movies of all time. It’s set to explore the origins of Furiosa, the heroic one-armed warrior played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road, who rescues five beleaguered war brides from Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and sets in motion that movie’s breakneck vehicular mayhem.
Max heads will know Furiosa has been in development for almost as long as Fury Road has been out– actually longer, since the script was written before work concluded on the Tom Hardy-starring actioner.
This one is a prequel centered on a younger Furiosa (we’ll likely see what the mythical “Green Place of Many Mothers” looked like before it was destroyed, for example– lore, give us the lore!) and accordingly the familiar faces of Fury Road have been swapped out for similarly starry principals.
The Queen’s Gambit‘s Anya Taylor-Joy comes in for Theron as Furiosa, director George Miller being less than convinced by the credibility of CGI de-aging tech, no matter how well it worked for Martin Scorsese. And Chris Hemsworth presumably prepped his best dad bod to portray wobbly warlord Immortan Joe, replacing Brit-Aussie legend Keays-Byrne, who passed away in 2020.
Here’s everything else we know about Furiosa.
Charlize Theron was “heartbroken” about her role being recast — but she gets why
After a New York Times interview with Miller confirmed that Charlize Theron wouldn’t return as Furiosa in the Fury Road follow-up, the actor spoke of her “heartbreak” about the recasting in conversation with the Hollywood Reporter.
“It’s a tough one to swallow,” she said. “Yeah, it’s a little heartbreaking, for sure. I really love that character, and I’m so grateful that I had a small part in creating her. She will forever be someone I think of and reflect on fondly.” We wonder if Theron still has Furiosa’s mechanical arm prosthetic in the loft somewhere. Maybe it has pride of place on the mantelpiece?
