George Miller talks ‘Mad Max Fury Road’ sequel, Mel Gibson cameo
One of the best films of 2015 was Mad Max: Fury Road and director George Miller spoke about the sequel, thought to follow Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, but is quiet on details.
Theron has not signed on the dotted line for any sequels, the next movie will be called Mad Max: The Wasteland and now Miller tells Deadline that it is only a working title and will be changed as the script develops.
“The more I speculate about what’s happening, the more I try to avoid spoilers this far out, and also I find myself talking around in circles. So the best thing I can say is that we’re definitely in discussion about making more of these, but the timing of it, I’m really not sure. Probably won’t be called Wasteland. I can say that. It was just the working title we gave it.”
Miller also confirmed that Tom Hardy will definitely return to the part, made it clear that he’s a permanent replacement and fans should not expect Mel Gibson to pop up in any capacity. Miller uses an James Bond analogy to drive this home.
“Not in these movies, for a very simple reason. If Mel, who is Max in a lot of people’s memories, appeared in the next movie, it would pull audiences out of the movie for a bit, and we worked so hard to keep people immersed in the movie as much as possible. It would be like, I don’t know, seeing Roger Moore appearing in a Daniel Craig James Bond movie. It would be fun, but it would also pull you out of the experience of the movie.”
Miller’s Justice Leauge ties are more public and he spoke about the genre and why it’s popular right now.
“I’m really, really interested in them a lot, but the truth is, and I shouldn’t be admitting this: I haven’t seen many of the recent crop for the very simple reason I’ve had my head down immersed in the process of doing Fury Road. However, stories are conducive to their time or somehow fit their time, and I think the fact that we’re seeing these films all around the world now, that kind of is an interplay between these superhero movies and what some people call the global monomyth, and the zeitgeist. And I think there’s interplay there, and I think you need to dig down deep and really understand why we need them.”
