Mad Max Prequel With Furiosa Rumored to Land Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

Mad Max: Fury Road‘s prequel is rumored to be moving forward with Watchmen‘s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II aboard. The mention of the Candyman star comes from Collider‘s SneiderCut podcast, but the host cautioned to take it with a grain of salt. George Miller is still slated to write and direct the film. Right now, he’s busy with Three Thousand Years of Longing, so Mad Max will have to wait until that is over. The project is expected to be a prequel that will follow Furiosa’s character. There is also the possibility that the film could cast another actress in Charlize Theron’s role as well. Another detail that could lend some credence to these murmurs is the fact that the Watchmen star is hard at work training ahead of Matrix 4. The Lana Wachowski movie is already filming and contains the sort of giant action set pieces that one could expect from the next Mad Max installment.

Abdul-Mateen was already in Aquaman as Black Manta by the time Watchmen rolled around. But his stint as Cal Abar and later Dr. Manhattan really served as a springboard for him. Keeping that secret for all that time couldn’t have been easy, but it ended up making the reveal that much more worth it. The star talked to The Wrap about the big reveal and what showrunner Damon Lindelof told him about the change when it came time. Needless to say, that had to be a huge burden for the actor.

“I went through a couple episodes, actually, without the knowledge of where Cal was going. I knew that he had a mysterious background,” he said. “I didn’t how that would play out until a couple episodes in, I had a conversation with Damon [Lindelof] to flesh that out, and he said very matter of factly Cal is Dr. Manhattan. On the outside I kind of received that cool, calm and collected, but on the inside, man, I was going nuts.”

“I don’t think it was written, on first view, to guide the viewers to that conclusion. I think that it was written so that, on second viewing, one would be able to appreciate those sort of breadcrumbs,” Abdul-Mateen explained. “The universe of watchmen is one where you can do a lot of damage by sheltering people from the truth. To me, in that moment, it was really a representation of the danger of their world. The kids couldn’t afford to live in a fairytale.”