By Travis Johnson

The Herald Sun is reporting that director George Miller is gearing up for a return to the wasteland, with Tom Hardy set to reprise his role as Max Rockatansky in a mooted continuation of the Mad Max series.

However, other sources are stating that the film, allegedly titled Mad Max: The Wasteland, is focused on Charlize Theron’s Furiosa, and will detail her adventures before the events of Fury Road. Either way, production is said to be taking place at Broken Hill, original site of Fury Road before unseasonal weather caused the shoot to move to Namibia.

The term “grain of salt” doesn’t quite have the gravitas required to encompass this rumour; “rampant speculation” seems more appropriate. Although Miller has said he’d be up for a return to the Mad Max universe, he’s also expressed a desire to make a smaller project first. Tom Hardy is signed on for three more films in the series, so his involvement is not outside the realms of possibility, but it’s difficult to imagine a Furiosa prequel; her story is done, and the notion of a prequel pays more attention to continuity than the series ever has up until this point. The real tell, though, is the idea that it’s going to shift into gear before the year’s end. There are simply too many moving parts on a project of this magnitude; the logistical challenges are immense. The Australian film industry is a small enough place that there’s almost no imaginable way that pre-production could be in full swing without word getting out; those groovy post-apocalyptic cars don’t build themselves.

But, further muddying the waters is this: we have it on reasonably good authority that Nick Lathouris, co-writer of Fury Road, is currently working on a Mad Max project. So, while a start date before the end of the year is still unrealistic, something is in the works, but almost certainly at earlier stage of development than reported elsewhere. We’ll just hold off on celebrating until something official comes our way.

 

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