George Miller is Bringing Order to the Chaotic Mad Max Timeline
All roads lead to Furiosa.
Anya Taylor-Joy is bringing us back to the wastelands of the Mad Max saga. The Dune: Part Two actress stars in the franchise’s first prequel, named after Charlize Theron’s Mad Max: Fury Road character. Furiosa charts the rise of the Imperator in an epic odyssey that takes a major page from Lawrence of Arabia, which sounds ambitious even by George Miller’s standards. But the director has been planning out Furiosa’s story for years, and he’s clearly keen to reinvent the world of Mad Max with a new post-apocalyptic warrior at its center.
Per Miller, Furiosa spans 15 years of the character’s life, from her childhood in the Green Place of Many Mothers — one of the few regions thriving in the wake of the apocalypse — to her subsequent abduction. Thanks to Fury Road, we know Furiosa spends years trying to make it back home. The latest Furiosa trailer, however, shows us exactly why it took so long for her to reunite with her family.
A young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) finds herself caught in the web of a maniacal warlord, Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). He’s obsessed with finding the Green Place, and he’s captured Furiosa and her mother (Charlee Fraser) to sus out the location of their verdant homeland. It’s no secret that Furiosa’s mom doesn’t last long under Dementus’ guard, hence why Furiosa vows vengeance. It may even explain why she becomes an Imperator for Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). Furiosa is determined to keep Dementus from the Green Place, and her quest to thwart him will see her lose her hair and an arm.
Furiosa is a prequel in the most literal sense. Not only will it answer most of the questions fans had after Fury Road, but its events run directly into those of the 2015 film. It’s the first Mad Max film immediately connected to another; while the saga has told its story sequentially, each film feels like a standalone, episodic adventure. You don’t need to watch the first Mad Max to enjoy The Road Warrior or Beyond Thunderdome, especially since Miller retconned elements of the earlier films with Fury Road.
The Mad Max saga has never had or needed a true, definitive timeline. But Fury Road changed the game in 2015, and Furiosa will reinforce the events of the film and its prequel comics. If Miller has his way, this also won’t be the last Mad Max film in this definitive new continuity. We could be getting a Furiosa-centric trilogy of films, and if the first one lives up to the trailer, we’ll want all of them.
