Tom Hardy doesn’t think a return as Mad Max is happening.
It’s been almost 10 years since Mad Max: Fury Road opened in theaters and while, in the years following the film’s release, there was talk of additional films following Max Rockatansky, Fury Road star Tom Hardy now has a blunt — and disappointing — update about whether he will return to the franchise. In an interview with Forbes (via Screen Rant), Hardy was asked about the rumored film and the actor said he didn’t think it was happening.
“I don’t think that’s happening,” he said.
The idea of a new Mad Max film that would follow Max’s story is something that director George Miller has even spoken about in the past. In 2019, Miller said that he wasn’t done with the franchise and, in 2022, Miller even said that there was another story in the works, though it was “not fully evolved” at that time. Instead, the next film in the Mad Max franchise to come to fruition was Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a film that told the origin story of Furiosa, a character played by Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road. Following the release of Furiosa, Miller confirmed that he has another Fury Road prequel idea he’s working on, one that would follow Max, though it was unclear if it is something that Hardy would reprise the role of Max in.
“In terms of where we are going, there’s this account of Max in the year before we meet him in Fury Road, which we still have. I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s the story we call ‘Max in the Wasteland,’ and it looks at what forges him as a character. If the planets align, I’d love to do it,” Miller said.
For now, the only prequel film that’s been made is Furiosa. In that film, as the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched away from the Green Place of Many mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.
Furiosa stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa along with Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Nathan Jones, Angus Sampson, and Quaden Bayles. The film will reportedly be released on Video On Demand (VOD) on June 24th.
