The “Mad Max” Prequel About Furiosa Will Not Star Charlize Theron

Before Mad Max: Fury Road came out in 2015, a spinoff movie about Charlize Theron‘s character, Furiosa, was in the works. Director, George Miller, talked to The New York Times about a Furiosa prequel saying he had hoped Charlize would also be able reprise her role but unfortunately the technology to de-age her isn’t up to part yet. Yeah, we know it isn’t. We all fell asleep during saw The Irishman.

George is currently working on Three Thousand Years of Longing which stars Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba, but shooting has been delayed because of coronavirus. After he’s done with Tilda and Idris, George wants to get to work on the new Mad Max movie, a prequel about a 20-something Furiosa.

“So after we finish it, and hopefully everything settles down with the pandemic, we’ll see what the world allows us to do with Furiosa.”

While making Fury Road, George and co-writer, Nick Lathouris, wrote various background stories about characters including Furiosa who got a huge backstory:

But it was Furiosa who received the bulk of their attention. Miller sought to answer questions about what the character’s life was like in the idyllic “Green Place,” why she was plucked from the group of woman warriors known as the Vuvalini, and how she became the hardened warrior we meet by the time Fury Road begins.

It was purely a way of helping Charlize and explaining it to ourselves.”

George and Nick actually wrote the Furiosa script before they even started filming Fury Road. At the time, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley–who played one of the Five Wives–saw the Furiosa script and loved it:

“I got to read it when I was cast. It’s genius. I’ve always wondered if that movie’s going to get made.”

Well it probably is. But not with Charlize and not because the shoot was a grueling mess for her. As you know, Charlize and Tom Hardy got into it during filming. Charlize won’t be in it because the CGI technology ain’t there yet:

“For the longest time, I thought we could just use CG de-aging on Charlize, but I don’t think we’re nearly there yet. Despite the valiant attempts on The Irishman, I think there’s still an uncanny valley. Everyone is on the verge of solving it, particular Japanese video-game designers, but there’s still a pretty wide valley, I believe.”

Well congrats to whichever 20-something actress gets cast as the two-armed young Furiosa. Hopefully her experience will be better than Charlize’s and she won’t have to deal with some asshole co-star giving her shit on top of dealing with desert sand getting all up in her parts.

Pic: YouTube