Director George Miller has plans. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the filmmaker’s multi-decade career. But he has plans for like, RIGHT NOW. As in, what comes next after “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.”
Miller has, for years, teased another post-apocalyptic prequel story. This one would be from Max Rockatansky’s point of view, and directly lead into the 2015 epic “Mad Max: Fury Road.” It would be called, appropriately, “The Wasteland.”
The Near 15-Year Fury Road Saga
In the late 1990s when production on “Fury Road” was first starting, Miller and co-writer Nico Lathouris mapped out backstories for both Max and Furiosa in the form of novellas. This was done with the intention to shoot two films back-to-back. But as we know, that version of the movie was plagued by delays, actual wars, Biblical weather, studio interference, and numerous other woes- including but not limited to Mel Gibson‘s very public meltdown(s). Gibson was actually going to reprise his role of Max for “Fury Road,” but obviously that didn’t end up happening, and we thankfully got Tom Hardy instead.
It became a near 15-year battle to get it made. (There have been tons of articles, oral histories, and interviews done on that very subject, so we won’t go into the particulars here. If you want to know more, pick up Kyle Buchanan‘s “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road” book.) But oh, what a finished product “Fury Road” is! 10 Oscar nominations and 6 wins, forever changing the landscape yet again of what a car chase action film could be.
9 years (almost to the day) later, we’ve finally gotten Furiosa’s origin story on the big screen. But what about the one for Max?
“We are certainly working on it,” Miller said. “And as I say, we wrote that basically as a novella, and now we’ve got a chance, we will get that into a screenplay form, and then we’ll take it from there.”
Various interviews with Miller revealed this 6th film would be about “the year of Max’s life leading up to ‘Fury Road,'” and cover some of the 40 Day Wasteland War. Vertigo comics written by Miller, Lathouris, and Mark Sexton were released directly on the heels of “Fury Road” in May of 2015, and told much of that prequel story. Comic adaptations are still all the rage, right? RIGHT?
But “Furiosa” would need to do well enough at the box office to assure Warner Bros. Pictures that audiences would indeed want another film. Considering how surprisingly (and unfairly) the film is performing right now, getting a greenlight seems a far stretch. Not an impossible thing, mind you. If you’ll recall, “Fury Road” didn’t break box office records it’s first week out either, but did have legs. There is a chance audiences will continue to grow.
We highly suggest catching it in a theater as soon as you can. Especially if you have any interest in seeing “The Wasteland” someday.
