Mad Max: Fury Road expanded upon the desolate Wasteland established in George Miller’s original Mad Max movies, but in doing so it made one obvious prequel concept all but impossible. Beginning with the original dystopian action film Mad Max in 1979, the Mad Max universe expanded over the course of two sequels in the 1980s: Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior) and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. After a 30-year hiatus, the franchise expanded by leaps and bounds with Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015, providing a new level of scale and action not seen in the first three movies.

With an expanded cast of characters and an elaborate backstory built into the action of Fury Road, the franchise was essentially reborn, albeit with Max Rockatansky still at its center. The upcoming prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is already receiving positive reviews, and is set to match the scale and level of lore included in Fury Road. As great for the franchise as that expansion is, it has rendered one of the most obvious prequel candidates all but irrelevant.

Mad Max: Fury Road Made A Prequel Movie About Max’s Origin Impossible

The established scale of the world is far beyond the original Mad Max

The mind-melting action and insanity of Mad Max: Fury Road made it impossible for the franchise to ever revisit Max’s origin. Between vehicular warfare, an army of War Boys, and a flamethrower guitar-wielding marauder, the franchise has simply progressed beyond the simple desolation of the Wasteland from the early Mad Max films. Colorful characters and next-level violence have been established as the norm of the world that Max Rockatansky calls home, and it would be impossible to now rein in the scale of the franchise.

In addition to not being able to scale back the scope of the franchise, the character of Max Rockatansky doesn’t actually require a backstory. An essential part of the character is his murky past, so it wouldn’t make sense to bring it all back to his life before he became The Road Warrior. Simply put, the origins of the Wasteland and the world before it aren’t as interesting as the maniacal possibilities of a world run by despots and psychopaths.

How Mad Max Can Still Explore Max’s Origin Without A Prequel Movie

Flashbacks within a larger movie could tell the story

Mad Max: Fury Road did provide some glimpses into Max’s past; he was haunted by visions of people that he had let down in the past, and the earlier movies included details about Max losing his family. Flashbacks are a more effective way to provide insight into Max’s origins without needing to dedicate an entire movie to the concept. Max continuing to be haunted by visions of his past could provide enough insight into how he wound up in Immortan Joe’s territory, and provide some backstory into his actions.

These flashbacks would need to be rolled into a larger movie, however. A sequel to Mad Max: Fury Road titled Mad Max: The Wasteland is tentatively in the works, and is set to feature Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky once again. It would make sense for the movie to include more flashbacks from Max’s past, especially as it will reportedly not feature Furiosa. The Mad Max franchise simply can’t accommodate a full movie’s return to Max’s origin given how far it has expanded in terms of scale.