Mad Max is back, baby! The Road Warrior blasted back onto screens in 2015 with Mad Max: Fury Road and gave the long-dormant franchise a shot of nitrous. That film went on to critical acclaim and picked up ten well-deserved Academy Awards nominations including Best Picture and Best Director. Since its release, director George Miller has been hyping up the follow-up to the movie, teasing both spinoff Furiosa and Mad Max: The Wasteland.
But despite the suddenly white-hot appeal of Mad Max, we’ve had to wait a while for production to begin due to legal disputes between Miller and Warner Bros. Now, it appears that legal fog has cleared, as The Geeks Worldwide are reporting that Miller has officially been given the green light to go ahead with Mad Max: The Wasteland. They’re saying that filming will begin in Australia this Fall, but as yet have no casting information for the movie.
Given that Tom Hardy signed a four-film deal prior to Fury Road, I’d assume that he’ll be back for another hi-octane adventure. As Furiosa seems to be taking a back seat, there’s a small chance we’ll see Charlize Theron reprising her role and joining Max, too. However, there are also rumblings that The Wasteland will be set prior to the events of Fury Road, which would obviously rule out her character’s involvement.
The Fall shoot also makes sense given both Miller and Hardy’s current commitments. Miller is set to shoot Three Thousand Years of Longing with Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba next month, described as a love story featuring a genie. Meanwhile, Hardy is deep into production of Venom 2 with Andy Serkis. But both of those projects should easily be wrapped up in time for a shoot in Australia later this year.
Mad Max: Fury Road wasn’t just one of the best action films of the decade, it was one of the best of the 2010s in ANY genre. If Miller can capture lightning in a bottle once more, then Mad Max: The Wasteland has just shot to the top of my most-anticipated list.
