Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth are giving fans a preview of what to expect when Furiosa fires up her engine and rockets onto the big screen.
The prequel to 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, opens in theatres on May 24. On April 9, at CinemaCon 2024 in Las Vegas, the actors from the film revealed information, behind-the-scenes images, and more.
At Caesar's Palace, Taylor-Joy, 27, Hemsworth, 40, and writer-director George Miller, 79, welcomed an ecstatic audience as part of a presentation from distributor Warner Bros.
Miller gave a lengthy tease that featured flaming snippets of the Wasteland. It seems that Furiosa's tale will be divided into three separate acts: “I: Her Odyssey Begins,” “II: A Warrior Awakens” and “III: Ride Into Vengeance.”
The post-apocalyptic epic, which Taylor-Joy took over from Charlize Theron in Fury Road, is described as an "all-new original, standalone action adventure that will reveal the origins" of Imperator Furiosa. The movie was co-written by the Australian director and Nico Lathouris.
"Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe," a returning character played by Lachy Hulme, taking over from Hugh Keays-Byrne. The synopsis adds: "While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.”
“In order to tell the story in Mad Max: Fury Road, we had to know everything that happened” beforehand, Miller said at CinemaCon. “That story was told over three days. [Furiosa] happens over about 16 to 18 years… We had to know where every vehicle, every prop, every character, every gesture, every utterance came from."
After spending months editing their work for the film, he laughed, looking at his two stars, saying, "They're complete frauds to me."
“This is the story of one woman’s relentless commitment to hope,” said Taylor-Joy, who praised Miller’s attention to detail. “I cannot wait to see this world realized on a really big screen.”
Playing Furiosa was “an honour,” she added. “I fell in love with her the way that Charlize portrayed her and never imagined that I would have this opportunity. So thank you, George!”
Hemsworth said entering Miller’s cinematic universe was a dream come true. “Growing up watching Mad Max films, being Australian and having watched the films over and over with my dad in particular, talking about the motorbike sequences and so on — George Miller was this godlike figure in not just the film world, but in my household," he said.