Pertinently, the NYT interview cites a comment from actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who played Splendid-one of the “wives” Furiosa liberated in Fury Road-who revealed, “I got to read when I was cast. Interestingly enough, the story at the center of the script for the Furiosa prequel was spun concurrently with the production of Fury Road a benefit from the film’s years in developmental purgatory-after it was initially greenlit in 2003-giving Miller and co-writer Nick Lathouris time to flesh out the pathos of the Furiosa character with a secondary screenplay for Theron to digest by the time cameras finally started rolling in the Namibia desert in 2012. While the director didn’t get into any specifics regarding actresses in the running for the role, the confirmation does validate the context of a recent report of rising star Anya Taylor-Joy’s audition for the coveted part (which she put in via Skype, for obvious reasons).
While the actress-who is 44 and was 36 at the time principal photography commenced on Fury Road in 2012-could still feasibly pull off a reprisal set in the years that immediately preceded the film, Miller’s prequel project will portray Furiosa’s early exploits, set decades before she came across Tom Hardy’s Mad Max, evidenced by Miller’s search for a new starring actress in her 20s. However, as mentioned, he won’t be doing anything with Theron, who originated the role. “So, after we finish, and hopefully everything settles down with the pandemic, we’ll see what the world allows us to do with Furiosa.” Yet, like everything else, that project is locked in pre-production stasis, left at the quagmire mercy of the COVID-19 pandemic, after it was scheduled to shoot this spring.Īs Miller explains of Furiosa’s backburner status: However, he won’t get to tackle the prequel until after he’s completed a different written/directorial effort in fantasy film Three Thousand Years of Longing, which stars Idris Elba opposite Tilda Swinton. Miller also confirms that the Furiosa prequel film is a prominent part of his backlog. “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.” Thus, Miller’s revelation definitively quells the long-held rumor that the prequel project would utilize digital de-aging technology (à la Netflix’s The Irishman or Star Wars entries The Rise of Skywalker and Rogue One,) to make Theron about twenty years younger onscreen.Īs Miller states of his nixing of the CGI idea: However, said sequel will not see a role reprisal by Theron.
In a bit of news that essentially verifies what previous reports have come to accept, Miller, in an interview with The New York Times, confirms that his mooted prequel movie centered on Fury Road standout character Furiosa is in the works, having settled a highly-publicized legal dispute with Warner Bros.
Furiosa is set for a grandiose solo return to the big screen… just not Charlize Theron’s portrayal of the post-apocalyptic warrior woman who stole the show in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, according to franchise mastermind George Miller.