Mad Max: Fury Road Nearly Cut Out Fan-Favorite Character Completely

Mad Max: Fury Road quickly earned a passionate following when it landed in theaters for a variety of reasons, with the Doof Warrior and his flame-throwing guitar earning a passionate following, but director George Miller recently revealed that the character was almost cut from the film due to disappointing reactions to the character during a test screening. Miller did point out that the reason people didn't connect with him was due to a temporary musical selection for his on-screen appearances being the same guitar riff, with fans merely growing irritated at having to hear this same track every time the character appeared.

"The Doof Warrior tested really badly at first," Miller revealed to The New York Times. "We had temp music, and whenever the Doof Warrior played in the test screening, it was the same riff, so it got annoying."

Luckily, attitudes towards the character changed once Junkie XL's score was inserted into those scenes.

"A couple people at the studio said, 'Oh, we've got to drop the Doof Warrior,'" Miller revealed. "I said, 'No no, it's way too early to even think of that.'"

In the film, the character is seen hanging from chains dangling in front of giant speakers, providing Immortan Joe with intimidating battle music any time he entered the fray. More than just a captivating image, the Doof Warrior was developed as an entire character, with Miller having even crafted a backstory for the figure.

"In his case, he was blind from birth. When things started going a bit crazy, he and his mother were left in a mining town," Miller detailed to Deadline. "The only way they could survive was to go into a place where there was a competitive advantage to being blind. And that was to go deep down into a mine shaft where they were able to survive. He took what was most precious to him, a musical instrument, probably a guitar. As they were careening through the wasteland, someone heard this music echoing out of that mine shaft, went down there and luckily they saw him as an asset. I think they killed his mother because she wasn't of any use. They took him and he eventually ended up as the equivalent of the drummer, the fife player or the bagpiper, in Immortan Joe's army."

With Miller having previously confirmed he is developing various new projects for the franchise, we might not have seen the last of the Doof Warrior, with Miller having confirmed, "I would like to think he's still alive, somehow."

Stay tuned for details on the Mad Max franchise.

Are you glad the character stayed in the film? Let us know in the comments below!