Tom Burke details “heroic” Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga character

Last Updated on June 5, 2024

When a prequel to 2015’s runaway (or is that drive away?) hit Mad Max: Fury Road was announced, we knew there had to be a wealth of new characters. And Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has made good, with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke being the most notable additions – outside of Furiosa herself, Anya Taylor-Joy, of course.

Chris Hemsworth has spoken about his character, Warlord Dementus, at length before, calling him “a pretty horrible individual”, something Hemsworth isn’t entirely used to. Similarly, Tom Burke had a challenge ahead of himself on the opposite side of the spectrum, as he was approached by Furiosa director George Miller with the “noble” and “heroic” Praetorian Jack.

While CinemaCon gave fans a better look at Tom Burke’s role in Furiosa, he went into more detail with Entertainment Weekly about Jack, who he says was the exact opposite of what he was expecting to be when Miller first introduced him to the role. “I’d convinced myself that I’d be playing somebody probably fairly grotesque and covered in boils … maybe you wouldn’t even see most of me, I’d be sort of inside an old, rusted-up, converted, pimped-up washing machine or something. I just thought, ‘Oh, here we go.’ I mean, obviously, I was excited, but I was really happy that it was [not that].”

As for more details on Praetorian Jack – who Tom Burke helped develop alongside Miller while making Furiosa – the actor said, “George’s idea, which is alluded to in the script, is that Jack is very much from a military family and that they perhaps knew Immortan Joe before he was the Immortan Joe, and that there was a journey to the Citadel and a certain idea of what that life might be that was very different from what it turned out to be, and sort of charting how that happened.” He, too, has a strong connection with Furiosa herself, with a relationship that he says “gives a really nice context to some of the dynamic she has with Max in Fury Road.”

Furiosa was already one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year, but now that we have a better look at some of these new characters, our engines are revved even more. What a lovely day!

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will have its premiere at this month’s Cannes Film Festival, where it is screening out of competition. After that, it will hit theaters on May 29th.