The Myth and Inspirations Behind the Mad Max Saga

Опубликовано 22 мая 2024, 21:00

In the nearly half century since Mad Max first appeared in The Wasteland, The Road Warrior has transitioned from single-minded instrument of revenge to mythic folk hero to, well, absent. It’s been a slow, steady and very intentional transition. We talked with George Miller about the franchise that’s been his pride and joy for decades, the constant reinvention and reformatting of the series, even while continuing to explore the core concept that he first tackled with the original film back in 1979, and why the Mad Max franchise is sturdy enough to stand on it’s own without its title character.

While the first three Mad Max movies – 1979’s Mad Max, 1981’s Mad Max 2, a.k.a. The Road Warrior, and 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome – all feature Mel Gibson’s iconic take on the character, there are shifts in the world-building between films, as well as echoes from one to the next, that seem to bend, if not outright break, continuity. The Mad Max universe is almost like the anti-MCU in this way – it’s enough to wake Kevin Feige up with the cold sweats in the middle of the night!

By the time we got to Fury Road in 2015, Max had been recast with Tom Hardy in the role, and the character – let’s be frank here – was playing second fiddle to Charlize Theron’s Furiosa. Not only was Theron a bigger star than Hardy, but she had a meatier story arc as well. This is when Miller came to realize the Mad Max world could exist without Mad Max. And so Furiosa’s back story was filled in with a screenplay and concept art all the way back when Fury Road was still being prepped. And now, all these years later, that story is finally being told.