Director George Miller decided to continue the Mad Max franchise with the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga… but to tell the story, he had to recast the role of Furiosa. While the character was played by Charlize Theron, who wanted to return for Furiosa, in Fury Road, Miller felt de-aging technology isn’t convincing enough just yet for Theron to play a much younger version of the character, so he cast Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead role for Furiosa. Theron has said that being left out of Furiosa was “a little heartbreaking” – but that hasn’t kept her from seeing or praising the finished film.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Theron confirmed that she has seen Furiosa and, “It’s amazing, it’s a beautiful film.“
Unfortunately, Theron and Taylor-Joy still haven’t had an opportunity to meet up and discuss their experiences playing the same character. “We’ve really been trying to connect. It’s been one of those… we can actually make a comedy out of it. We keep running into each other and in places when we don’t have time to really talk to each other, so we’re constantly like, ‘Oh my god, OK, let’s get together!’ And then life takes over. But it will happen when it’s right.“
Directed by Miller from a screenplay he wrote with Nico Lathouris, Furiosa has the following synopsis: 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. The story takes place over a span of fifteen years.
Lachy Hulme (Offspring) pulls double duty in the film, playing both Fury Road villain Immortan Joe (taking over from the late Hugh Keays-Byrne) and a character called Rizzdale Pell, who is “one of the gang members affiliated with the warlord Dementus.” Dementus is “a pretty horrible individual, and he’s played by Chris Hemsworth (Thor). Also in the cast are Tom Burke (C.B. Strike) and Quaden Bayles (Three Thousand Years of Longing), with Alyla Browne (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart) as a younger Furiosa. Nathan Jones and Angus Sampson reprise their Fury Road roles of Rictus Erectus and The Organic Mechanic.
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