Mad Max Director Weighs In on Bringing Mel Gibson Back to the Franchise

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga director George Miller addresses potential Mel Gibson return.

By Jamie Jirak

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is heading to theaters later this month, and it marks the fifth installment to the franchise George Miller started back in 1979. The original trilogy of films starred Mel Gibson in the titular role before Tom Hardy took over the part in Mad Max: Fury Road back in 2015. Furiosa is expected to be the first installment that won't feature Max, but Miller has talked about bringing the iconic character back in another prequel. However, Miller has no plans to bring Gibson back to the franchise. 

"There's no story that I have that has an older character, like Harrison Ford, or so on," Miller explained to Jake's Takes. "It's not like an Unforgiven or one of those movies, where it's really an old burnt-out person coming back one more time." 

"I don't know what happens to Max when he gets into his 60s," Miller added. "I haven't even thought of that."

What Is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga About?

In Mad Max: Furiosa, as the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched 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.

The film also stars Tom Burke, Nathan Jones, Angus Sampson, and Quaden Bayles.

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"When we wrote Mad Max, the task was to tell a story that was always on the run and to see how much the audience could pick up in passing," Miller previously explained to The AV Club. "That was one of the tricks of Mad Max: Fury Road, that there would be references to things of where she's from, why they're doing things, but it was always on the run. There were very few moments of quiet. We never explained how she lost her arm. We never explain what the actual Green Place Of Many Mothers was. We never explained the workings of the Citadel. So we had the screenplay virtually complete before we shot Fury Road, and we did it because it arose out of wanting to explain to everybody who Furiosa was—to Charlize when she took on the role, and to all the actors and the designers and everybody else working on the Citadel and so on. The feeling was, gee, this is a pretty good screenplay, and then I kept saying to myself, 'If Fury Road works, I'd really like to tell this story.'"

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is currently scheduled to be released in theaters on May 24th.

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