Much like Rogue One, which takes us right up to the opening frames of the original Star Wars from 1977, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ends right where Mad Max: Fury Road begins. It even features scenes from the 2015 movie over the closing credits. And much like Rogue One, Furiosa is the prequel we needed, nay deserved, all without even knowing we even wanted it.
It arrives from the mind of Australian writer/director George Miller, whose 12 features to date are 42 per cent Mad Max movies from as far back as 1979, but also include the two Happy Feet animated films and Babe: Pig in the City. It’s a bit like finding out that David Cronenberg also made, I don’t know, Shrek 2. This particular saga is the backstory of Imperator Furiosa, the badass memorably portrayed by Charlize Theron 10 years ago in Fury Road.
The character this time out is played by Anya Taylor-Joy, though for the first 40 minutes or so she’s ably acted by young Alyla Browne. In a bit of a tease, posters for the movie show Furiosa with just the one arm, leaving me on the edge of my seat as to when Browne would morph into Taylor-Joy, how she would be, er, disarmed, and which transformation would come first. No spoilers though.
Wait and see. Furiosa is captured by members of a gang of bikers led by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth, channelling early Thor). Unkempt and unshaven, wearing an ensemble that looks like a combination of thrift-store castoffs, wedding shop fire sale items and Han Solo’s hand-me-downs, Dementus .
