Could a proposed Mad Max prequel save the franchise?

While we know that Mad Max’s future is shaky after Furiosa failed to deliver at the box-office – which is a shame, because it’s really, really good! – but is it possible that Max Rockatansky’s future might lie in his past?

One of the best things about the Mad Max series is that the original 1979 movie was set in a world nearing its end when society was starting to collapse but was, for many aspects, still recognisable. By the time we got to the sequels, the world was a post-nuclear war hellscape where one man – Mel Gibson or Tom Hardy, take your pick – was fighting to stay alive.

When the most recent entry, Furiosa, deviated away from Max to tell the story of Charlise Theron’s Furiosa – introduced in Mad Max: Fury Road and played here by Anya Taylor-Joy – the fans didn’t turn out, which is a pity because is has so much to recommend it, not least of all Chris Hemsworth’s deliriously evil Dr Dementus, dooming creator/director George Miller’s Mad Max: The Wastelands, a movie he wrote while developing Furiosa.

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Miller spoke about this after Furiosa came out, saying: “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] 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.”

Sadly, back in June of this year, star of Fury Road, Tom Hardy, when asked about The Wastelands, replied: “I don’t think that’s happening.”

And just like that, Max Mad was no longer a viable franchise.

But never say never.

Now,  filmmaker Justin Kurzel (Nitram The Order) has said that he has an idea for a Mad Max prequel and he’s going to put it to George Miller and see if there’s any possibility of it happening: “I’ve always been curious about what happened before the first Mad Max – what was that world with the Nightrider, pre-Mad Max? I’ve always been very curious about that and very tempted to talk to George about the possibility of a world that is pre-Mad Max 1 and what that is,” he says.

“That’s been one that I’ve always been really curious about because it was such an influential film in my time. It’s an amazing franchise, but I’ve always been curious about those moments before that first one because it’s set up so richly. And it’s such a great time in Australia, too, that period.”

Miller, who has written and directed all five Mad Max movies, is approaching 80 years of age and, let’s be honest, if the franchise hadn’t been derailed this year, would have likely needed to hand the reigns over to someone else anyway and perhaps a lower budget Max prequel is just the adrenaline hit Max needs… if Miller gives the rights to the next person to step into that world.

There’s no question that the current climate put fans off going to see Furiosa, even though Miller talked it up almost immediately after Fury Road, so it wasn’t an idea he just came up with, but putting Max, even a younger Max (who would need to be played by a third actor who looks like 1970s Mel Gibson) front and centre of the franchise would almost certainly bring some fans back.

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

Source: Collider