George Miller says he’s working on next Mad Max movie and talks possibility of Mel Gibson return

May 12th, 2024 by Marc Comments

He may be 79 years old and gearing up for the release of his new Mad Max- movie with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, but creator/director George Miller has more plans for Max’s world and the screwed-up characters in it.

Miller has discussed his preparation for 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road and how he drew out a full history and backstory for the characters and how they arrived where they were – indeed, it was this prep that led to the Furiosa movie which is a direct prequel to Fury Road, but there’s more story from that work that needs to be told as he also created a novella taking place between Furiosa and Fury Road, a novella he plans on making into the next Mad Max.

WATCH: Second trailer drops for George Miller’s Mad Max spin-off, Furiosa

“In doing what we did in the preparation of Mad Max: Fury Road, we also wrote what happened to Max in the year before we encounter him in [that film],” Miller says, “and as we get towards the end of [Furiosa], the chronology, basically, we had to see that Mad Max was lurking around somewhere because we do know what happened. The writers know what happened to Mad Max in that year before, and we have a whole story of that, which I would like to do sometime if I get the chance.”

He continues, making it clear that he is actively working on it: “We are certainly working on it. And as I say, we wrote that basically as a novella, and now we’ve got a chance, we will get that into a screenplay form, and then we’ll take it from there.”

Wonder if it’s still set to be called The Wasteland? Anyways…

There’s no question that Fury Road – despite having Tom Hardy playing Max Rockatansky, taking over from Mel Gibson, last seen in the role in 1985’s Beyond the Thunderdome – delivered massively for fans, critics and box-office and excitement is really high for Furiosa, despite it not featuring Max, so Miller, age and fate allowing, getting another movie is very likely.

However, as mentioned already, with Max now being Hardy, many fans have been wondering if we might see Gibson return to the role one last time in an ‘Old Man Max’-type adventure, however, in a new interview (see below), Miller honestly says he has no plans for such an outing because, despite the current trend of heroes returning as miserable, grizzled older versions of themselves, he just doesn’t see Max there.

“There’s no story that I have that has an older character, like, y’know, a Harrison Ford, or so on,” Miller says, obviously talking about Ford’s return as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner 2049, Han Solo in The Force Awakens and Indian Jones in Dial of Destiny, “It’s not… it happened even on Fury Road. At a certain point, it’s not like an Unforgiven, or one of those movies, where it’s really an old, burnt-out person coming back one more time. It’s very much… I mean, there probably are stories to tell [but] I don’t know what happens to Max when he gets into his 60s, or something like that. I haven’t even thought of that. I’m much more thinking of the characters around the time, about 40 or 50 years after the whole, sort of, collapse of society.”

George Miller discusses the future of Mad Max as first looks at Chris Hemsworth in Furiosa appear

I love the Mad Max movies and I love Miller and after seeing some of my favourite childhood heroes return in recent years as hollowed-out versions of who they once were – though not all of them, mind – I understand Miller’s reluctance but, ironically, if there’s one hero – or anti-hero – who might weather the grumpy old version, it’s Max.

So, a new Mad Max is already in development but Gibson returning is not on the cards…win some, lose some.

Thoughts?

Anya Taylor-Joy stars in the title role of Furiosa, along with Chris Hemsworth as Dr Dementus, the film also stars Alyla Browne and Tom Burke.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will be released in the UK on 24th May 2024 by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Miller penned the script with “Mad Max: Fury Road” co-writer Nico Lathouris. Miller’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes first assistant director PJ Voeten and second unit director and stunt coordinator Guy Norris, director of photography Simon Duggan (“Hacksaw Ridge,” “The Great Gatsby”), composer Tom Holkenborg, sound designer Robert Mackenzie, editor Eliot Knapman, visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson and colorist Eric Whipp. The team also includes other longtime collaborators: production designer Colin Gibson, editor Margaret Sixel, sound mixer Ben Osmo, costume designer Jenny Beavan and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt, each of whom won an Oscar for their work on “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

Warner Bros. Pictures Presents, in Association with Village Roadshow Pictures, A Kennedy Miller Mitchell Production, A George Miller Film, “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.”

WATCH: All hell breaks lose in first clip and final trailer from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Source: World of Reel

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….