Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

[Walts Ghost]

‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Prequel Reportedly in the Works

How big do grains of salt come these days? A new report from Australia’s Herald Sun states that a Mad Max: Fury Road prequel is not only in the works over at Warner Bros., it could start filming in Australia as soon as this year with George Miller returning at the helm. Now that is the kind of story I would love to believe, but there are a few odd bits that leave a lot of room for questions.

But first, here’s what the Herald Sun is saying:

While that’s a move that would make complete sense for the studio (Fury Road wasn’t a box office hit on the level of their Superhero films, but it earned the studio 6 Oscars and a huge cultural cache,) I’m still a bit dubious. For one thing, Miller has gone on record a couple times stating that, while he has more Mad Max stories to tell (two more, to be specific), he did not plan to immediately return to the franchise for his next project. Second, the report alleges that the prequel film will focus on the backstory of Charlize Theron‘s Furiosa, which is a move I can totally see the studio making, but would mark a pretty seismic shift from Miller’s previous Mad Max pattern, which have followed our Road Warrior Mad Max Rockatansky from one high-octane wasteland story point to another with very little narrative overlap.

However, as anyone who follows the announced, dropped, and reannounced projects that litter the film trades (like say, Mad Max: Fury Road for example), plans change so Miller may have come around to making another Mad Max film his priority. And considering how popular Furiosa was, it certainly makes sense that the studio would want to return to the character. For her part, Theron has been unequivocally onboard for the idea of returning as Furiosa in a follow-up film. Bunker Hill also makes sense as a filming location, and indeed, was where Fury Road was intended to film before an unexpected rainfall turned the usually barren lands into a fertile, green landscape unfitting for a wasteland.

For my part, I’ll remain a bit dubious until we get official confirmation, but until then, we’ll just have to keep enjoying the glory of Fury Road‘s raw, CGI-free footage and the long-promised black-and-white cut when Mad Max: Fury Road Black and Chrome Edition, which finally arrives later this year.

What do you guys think? Are you buying this story? Is a prequel the right way to go with the franchise? Sound off in the comments.