By now, you will have witnessed the adrenaline-rich cinematic experience that is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Helmed by homegrown auteur George Miller, who returns to craft the celebrated post-apocalyptic franchise’s fifth instalment almost a decade after Fury Road starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, suffice it to say, this prequel is certainly a worthy expansion of the beloved mythology.
And one that isn’t completely divorced from the flagship storyline involving former Main Force Patrol officer Max Rockatansky.
Breaking Down Furiosa’s Mad Max Cameo
[Minor Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Spoilers]
After a bloody encounter with Biker Horde warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), the titular Imperator Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy; previously portrayed by Theron) is forced to crawl through the desert, slowly making her way back to the Citadel.
The camera shifts to a mysterious figure who watches all this unfold from afar; on a cliff edge while standing near a beat-up Interceptor. This is none other than Max himself (portrayed by NZ stuntman Jacob Tomuri in place of Tom Hardy), who is implied to have picked Furiosa up once she collapses and drops her off near a Citadel settlement.
“That was always there when we had the story because he’s lurking in the wasteland,” Miller explained to BH during a recent press junket.
“He’s got a year to go before he gets captured as a blood bag in Fury Road. And that’s how we find him on top of that cliff.”
The Aussie filmmaker of Babe and Happy Feet fame went on to elaborate: “Basically, in order to tell Fury Road, we had to write Furiosa and indeed another story about Max in the year before we encounter him in Fury Road.”
“[Furiosa] is the film that we prepared as a screenplay with concept art and everything for the actors and the crew and the designers for us to make Fury Road. And then when Fury Road got traction, we thought, ‘OK, we’ll do this story because it allowed us to explore much more, you know?”
“The characters, how they came about, how they endured the wasteland… 45 years after the collapse of mankind. And in particular: to see Furiosa emerge from being a child into the kind of road warrior person we find at the beginning of Fury Road.”
Multiple reports in the years since Mad Max: Fury Road have indicated there will be a least another franchise instalment in addition to Furiosa, the latter punctuated by events that immediately precede the former’s opening scenes (the end credits are even a montage of Fury Road).
Will there be another Mad Max sequel?
During the same interview in which George Miller confirmed the Max Rockatansky cameo in Furiosa, he hinted at what we could expect from the forthcoming sequel currently dubbed Mad Max: The Wasteland (working title).
“As I said before, to tell Fury Road, we had to understand not only the characters, but everything else about the world, how they got there. We also wrote a version of Mad Max in the year before we see him on top of that cliff, and before we see him in Fury Road,” he said.
“Every film has to be different from the next. You can’t just do another version of what you’ve just done. That was some of the attraction to Furiosa, and to just get a little bit more granular with all these characters was really interesting.”
But as for the matter of whether Mr Hardy or Ms Theron should be expecting a phone call any time soon, Miller was hesitant to commit anything to record. Perhaps due to the notoriously frosty relationship that developed between his two stars throughout the production of Mad Max: Fury Road.
“Let’s wait and see,” he said with a diplomatic smile.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth is now showing in cinemas across Australia (and beyond). And yes, it soundly earns the Boss Hunting seal of approval.
Also read: Chris Hemsworth’s Inhuman Workout & Diet Plan Will Get You ‘Mad Max’ Ripped
