It's hard to say what's going on with Warner Bros. and a follow-up to Mad Max: Fury Road. The film had a whopping 10 Oscar nominations, winning 6 of them, credentials that would normally scream "instant sequel". But George Miller has been a bit flaky on whether that's in the cards. It probably doesn't help that the $380M-grossing flick wasn't exactly a massive success, especially when you factor in the many delays, budget overruns, etc.
In the midst of all this we've heard of a potential movie centering on Charlize Theron's popular character, Furiosa, which Theron says she hasn't hear about, and Miller's admission that any sequel would be titled Mad Max: The Wasteland. This was before he claimed to be finished making Mad Max movies so he could do something smaller. Well all of these things are converging now as The Herald Sun in Australia says pre-production has begun on a Mad Max prequel focused on Furiosa. Titled Mad Max: The Wasteland, Theron would be back to reprise her role while there's nothing about Tom Hardy returning as Mad Max, which he really wouldn't need to do if it's about her. Considering how the two actors butted heads on set it might be wise to move in a direction that keeps them apart.
So how much can we buy into this? Well, the source isn't the greatest in the world. Breaking movie news isn't really their bag. With the flaky track record Miller has shown about the future of Mad Max I dare anybody to say definitively what's going on. We've been told my Miller that two sequels were on the way, that NONE were on the way, and if so then Furiosa wouldn't be in any of them. So what are we to believe?
Grain of salt time, to be sure. If any of this is true then production is planned for the end of the year. I think there will be some serious scouring through the "Black & Chrome" Blu-Ray special features to see if Miller drops any info on the franchise's future.
