Furiosa: Anya Taylor-Joy to lead Mad Max prequel with Chris Hemsworth, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

It’s official: After a whole lot of rumours and hints, and vague promises, Warner Bros. and filmmaker George Miller is finally making a follow-up to his bonkers 2015 Oscar-winning action blockbuster masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road. But as was recently reported, this won’t be the next adventure of Tom Hardy’s post-apocalyptic hero Max Rockatansky but will be a prequel telling the origin story of Furiosa, Charlize Theron’s breakout badass co-lead character from the previous film. And now we also know who will be playing that role.

According to reports from multiple outlets, Miller has cast 24-year old actress Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead role. Taylor-Joy had her own breakout in 2015 in the period horror The VVitch, before appearing in Split and its sequel Glass. She’s also had leading roles in Thoroughbreds, Emma, and appeared in BBC’s Peaky Blinders. Most recently, the actress played Ilyana Rasputin AKA Magik in Fox’s long-delayed The New Mutants. Coincidentally, Taylor-Joy’s mother is actually of South African descent, much like the Benoni-born Theron.

Not content for just one talented actor in his cast, Miller has reportedly also cast a couple of comic book characters in Chris Hemsworth and Yayha Abdul-Mateen II. Hemsworth is, of course, most famous for playing the thunder god Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe while Abdul-Mateen played Black Manta in Aquaman and the key role of Cal Abar in HBO’s Watchmen TV series for which he won a Primetime Emmy. Hemsworth is set to return as the fan-favourite superhero in the upcoming, eagerly-anticipated Thor: Love and Thunder, while Abdul-Mateen is currently busy filming The Matrix 4 in an undisclosed role and will soon be seen in the Candyman revival.

And speaking of undisclosed, we have absolutely no details as to who these two actors are playing nor what the actual story for Furiosa will be. Mad Max: Fury Road is very sparse when it comes to Furiosa’s backstory, but we know she is from The Vuvalini of Many Mothers, a tribe who once lived in The Green Place, a verdant oasis that was eventually swallowed up by the toxic wasteland. All we know about Furiosa’s time there is that 20 years before the events of Fury Road, she and her mother were attacked and kidnapped from their home, with her mother dying a few days later. We don’t know who their assailants were or why they attacked her, nor what happened in the intervening years until we met her again as a rig-driving Imperator working for Immortan Joe.

If I had to hazard a guess, the Furiosa prequel will probably show how she came to lose her arm and replace it with that iconic robotic prosthesis. Also, I’ve seen it suggested that the heartthrob Hemsworth could be playing a younger, not-yet-bloated-and-twisted version of Immortan Joe and now I really want to see that. Hell, I really want to see this movie overall.

It has to be said though, not having Theron (and I guess Hardy) back for a proper Fury Road sequel is a bummer. Furiosa is easily one of Theron’s greatest characters and we all want more. But there’s no denying that this is one potent cast here as well. And if Taylor-Joy can fill the massive boots now placed in front of her and Miller once again unleashes another cinematic maelstrom of action madness on us, then oh what a lovely day it will be!

Last Updated: October 14, 2020