Furiosa has a 15-minute action sequence which took 78 days to shoot

Mad Max: Fury Road was a symphony of well-choreographed, thrilling action, but Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will hopefully give it a run for its money. I have faith that director George Miller will deliver the action goods, but if you need a tease, Miller’s producing partner Doug Mitchell told Total Film that Furiosa has a 15-minute action sequence, which took almost three months to shoot.

Mitchel teased that Furiosa “has one 15-minute sequence which took us 78 days to shoot,” with nearly 200 stunt people working on it each and every day. The sequence was known as Stairway to Nowhere during production and is said to mark a turning point for Furiosa.

Furiosa star Anya Taylor-Joy added, “George and I would have these big conversations about why this particular set-piece was so long. It’s because you see an accumulation of skills over the course of a battle, and that’s very important for understanding how resourceful Furiosa is, but also her grit. It’s the longest sequence any of us have ever shot. On the day we finished, everybody got a ‘Stairway To Nowhere’ wine!“

A six-minute sneak peek of Furiosa was recently screened at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, which our own Chris Bumbray attended, and it sounded pretty epic.

In addition to Taylor-Joy as Furiosa, Chris Hemsworth also stars as biker warlord Dementus, and it was a role that he’s called the best experience of his career. “I came into that film exhausted. I thought, ‘How am I going to get through this?’” Hemsworth said. “Week one of rehearsals with [Miller], all of a sudden it was this reigniting of my creative energy.” The actor said the production of Furiosa was “by far the best experience of my career, and something I feel the most proud of. It made me think, the work isn’t what’s exhausting it’s what kind of work it is, and how invested I am in it and if it is challenging in the right way.”

The official synopsis for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: “As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland they come across the Citadel presided over by the Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.“

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will hit theaters on May 24th.