Tom Burke and Anya Taylor-Joy in "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga."
Is it the end of the road for the Mad Max saga with Furiosa? Director George Miller has his thoughts but it all seems to come down to Warner Bros. taking another risk following Furiosa’s underwhelming box office debut.
When Furiosa made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in the South of France in mid-May, Deadline reported that the movie was expected to pull in $50 million in its domestic debut over the long Memorial Day Weekend.
Instead, Furiosa eked out a $32 million domestic box office victory in its opening four-day frame, barely beating out the animated Garfield Movie in its theatrical debut.
Furiosa, of course, is itself a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, where Tom Hardy took over the title role after Mel Gibson played the character in the first three films in the Mad Max series in 1979, 1981 and 1985.
Fury Road also introduced Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa to the franchise. Anya-Taylor Joy, of course, plays a younger version of Theron’s character in Furiosa, while Chris Hemsworth plays her chief nemesis Dementus.
Miller, who created the post-apocalyptic action saga with 1979’s Mad Max, seemed hopeful at Cannes that there would be a sequel to Furiosa.
“There’s certainly more stories there,” Miller said during a press conference for Furiosa on May 16 (via Deadline). “Maybe because in order to tell the story of Fury Road, we needed to know about Furiosa and Max in the years before.”
Note: Furiosa spoilers are discussed in the next section.
‘Mad Max: The Wasteland’ Is Merely Just A Title At This Point
After Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) cemented Dementus’ (Chris Hemsworth) fate in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the end credits scenes for the film didn’t necessarily indicate that another Mad Max adventure was on the way.
Instead, the scenes consisted of various highlights from Mad Max: Fury Road, where the likes of Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa and Tom Hardy’s Mad Max were featured. A brief 1- to 2-second clip after the credits ended appeared to be original footage, though, which indicated Furiosa’s road adventures would continue.
While at the Cannes Film Festival press conference for Furiosa (per The Hollywood Reporter), director George Miller briefly discussed a possible sequel which would be titled Mad Max: The Wasteland.
The Wasteland, of course, is the unforgiving desert landscape featured in previous Mad Max movies. However, Miller, 79, was cautious to note, “I’ll definitely wait to see how this [Furiosa] goes before we even think about it.”
For what it’s worth, Mad Max: The Wasteland is merely an idea at this point and is not in active development, a source told THR.
Of course, the biggest obstacle standing between Furiosa and The Wasteland is Furiosa’s box office. In addition to Furiosa’s $32 million domestic Memorial Day Weekend Take, the film only earned $36.5 million in international ticket sales to bring the four-day worldwide box office tally to $66.5 million.
According to Variety, Furiosa cost $168 million to produce before its production and advertising budget, so it has a lot of ground to make up.
By contrast, Mad Max: Fury Road had a production budget of $150 million before its P&A spend, according to box office tracker The Numbers. The film, however, earned $156.6 million domestically and $216.2 million overseas for a worldwide box office total of $369.8 million.
Granted, it took nine years for Furiosa to get released after Fury Road, but even with the shutdowns with the COVID-19 pandemic and the writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023, it is still an inordinate amount of time between franchise releases.
Anya Taylor-Joy in "Furiosa."
What Are Miller’s Options For ‘The Wasteland’?
In the event George Miller can put another Mad Max Saga movie together, he’ll at least have a couple of options.
If the director sticks with Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa, he conceivably could bring in a younger version of Tom Hardy’s Max Rocketansky as well. The problem there, of course, is that Furiosa and Max’s paths don’t cross until Fury Road.
At the very least, Miller could set the characters on a collision course that would run up to the events of Fury Road. It almost seems like a necessity because it's hard to say how fans would receive another Mad Max movie without Mad Max, which is the case in Furiosa.
Since Miller said at Cannes about needing to know about "Furiosa and Max in the years before," this seems to be a viable option.
The other option Miller could exercise for a second Fury Road prequel/Furiosa sequel would be to set the film not too long before Fury Road as a way to bring back Charlize Theron as Furiosa.
“I think Furiosa suffered without Charlize,” a studio insider told THR. “People who see [Furiosa] love it. The problem is getting them into theaters. She would have been able to do that.”