Anya Taylor-Joy will play the young Imperator Furiosa in the forthcoming Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, it’s been confirmed.
The Witch star had been rumoured for the role, played by Charlize Theron in George Miller’s epic comeback movie from 2015, but now it’s all nice and official.
She’ll be joined on the bill by Aquaman, Arthur Curry and Watchmen star, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and by the mighty Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, though details of their roles have not been revealed.
Speaking about the casting, Hemsworth took to Instagram to relay his excitement.
“Pretty damn fired up to be a part of a franchise that meant the world to me as a kid growing up in Australia,” he said.
“Mad Max was the pinnacle and a huge reason why I got into the business of telling stories. The fact that I’ll have the honour of not only being directed by its original visionary in George Miller but also take part in Furiosa’s origin story is incredibly exciting.
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“Huge respect to George, Mel, Charlize, Tom and all the cast and crew who helped build this epic world. I’ll do my best to continue the tradition of cinematic badassery.”
In Fury Road, Furiosa is introduced as one of the ‘war captains’ for the tyrannical Immortan Joe, who oversees the supply of oil to his post-apocalyptic citadel.
However, she turns on Joe, and sets about freeing his concubines, the ‘five wives’, meeting and reluctantly teaming up with Tom Hardy’s ‘Mad’ Max Rockatansky along the way.
The war rig-driving warrior has a mechanical arm, but other than that, little – well, nothing is given away about her back story.
According to previous interviews, Miller mulled the possibility of casting Theron in the role again and using de-ageing technology but has gone with re-casting instead.
As with Fury Road, Miller will both direct and write the movie, with co-writers Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris.
Miller and McCarthy had the ideas lined up for the Furiosa movie while writing Fury Road, back in 2011, and also have a sequel, Mad Max: The Wasteland in mind too.
Miller told Indiewire in 2019: “There are two stories, both involving Mad Max, and also a Furiosa story. We’re still solving, we’ve got to play out the Warners thing, it seems to be pretty clear that it’s going to happen.”
Fury Road was a long-awaited hit for Miller, hauling in 10 Oscar nominations, winning six in all.
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