Furiosa: Why George Miller didn’t digitally de-age Charlize Theron for Mad Max prequel

It didn’t used to be an issue when a character was recast with a younger actor for a prequel or flashback scene, but with digital de-aging, directors can choose to have the same actor portray a character throughout their life. When it was announced that George Miller would be directing a Mad Max: Fury Road prequel featuring Furiosa, some were upset when he decided to recast the role rather than de-age Charlize Theron.

While speaking with Empire (via IGN), George Miller explained why he recast the role of Furiosa with Anya Taylor-Joy instead of de-aging Charlize Theron.

“It definitely would have been Charlize [had Furiosa been filmed before Fury Road],” Miller said. “I began thinking, ‘Oh, maybe we could do de-aging.’ Then I watched really masterful filmmakers like Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, doing Gemini Man and The Irishman, and I saw that it hadn’t been licked. All you’d be watching is, ‘Look how well the technology works?’ It would not have been persuasive.“

I would side with Miller on this one. As impressive as digital de-aging can be at times, I’ve yet to see it reach the point where I stop thinking about it. One day though. The director added that he knew Anya Taylor-Joy would be more than capable of taking on the role. “There’s an innately resolute quality in [Taylor-Joy],” Miller said. “She’s a very determined and rigorous person. She has a mystique about her. And she’d been trained young as a ballet dancer. Charlize trained young as a ballet dancer. There’s a precision to them that was needed.“

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.” The first reactions to a recent test screening of Furiosa were reportedly quite positive, and there have also been rumblings that we should be seeing a second trailer quite soon.

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