‘Mad Max’ Prequel ‘Furiosa’ Brings On Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

The long-awaited prequel of George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road finally found its Furiosa.

Miller has tapped Emma star Anya Taylor-Joy to play the younger version of the titular character previously played by Charlize Theron. She’ll be starring alongside Chris Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.

In an interview with the New York Times, Miller revealed he has been searching for an actress in her 20s to play Furiosa. He considered using de-aging technology on Theron to allow her to reprise the role, but in the end, he decided not to.

“For the longest time, I thought we could just use CG de-aging on Charlize, but I don’t think we’re nearly there yet,” Miller said. “Despite the valiant attempts on The Irishman, I think there’s still an uncanny valley. Everyone is on the verge of solving it, particularly Japanese video-game designers, but there’s still a pretty wide valley, I believe.”

During the 15-year development of the Mad Max series, Miller and co-writer Nick Lathouris developed origin stories not only for Furiosa but for each of the main characters. Although it wasn’t entirely revealed in the films, it was a way to help the actors further understand their characters. Miller first hinted at plans for an Imperator Furiosa film back in 2016.

He told Entertainment Weekly, “She’s a pretty compelling character, so it’d be great to tell her story … Her backstory is pretty interesting; we only allude to it in this movie.”

Taylor-Joy has recently just completed filming for Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho and she is now in the middle of filming Robert Egger’s The Northman. She’ll also be appearing in the long-awaited The New Mutants. Before that, she starred in M. Night Shyamalan’s Split and Glass. She also appeared in the latest season of Peaky Blinders.

Hemsworth most recently starred in Avengers: Endgame, Men in Black: International, and Extraction. Now, he’s currently voicing Thor for the upcoming tv series What If…? He’s also preparing to film for the next Thor movie Thor: Love and Thunder. In addition to that, Hemsworth is set to star in another Netflix action film titled Spiderhead.

Abdul-Mateen II is most known for his role as Black Manta in Aquaman. Aside from that, he had roles in Us and Watchmen, the latter of the two winning him an Emmy Award. He can also be seen as Bobby Seale in The Trial of the Chicago 7. He has just completed filming for Candyman and he is now in the midst of filming for The Matrix 4.