Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga director George Miller has weighed in on post-credits footage from the previous movie (and canonical sequel) Mad Max: Fury Road, and how the footage impacts the Fury Road viewing experience. Intended as both a prequel and a spin-off to Miller’s 2015 box office hit Mad Max: Fury Road, the movie stars Anya Taylor-Joy in the role of Imperator Furiosa, replacing Charlize Theron, who portrayed the character in Fury Road. Furiosa has attained a ‘fresh’ Rotten Tomatoes audience rating and received widespread critical acclaim, and the movie’s unexpected post-credits scene has generated discussion.

Following Furiosa‘s epic ending, the early credits take the opportunity to play footage from Mad Max: Fury Road, which includes a brief cameo from Max, in a metafictional nod to the previous movie, and a way of canonically connecting the franchise on-screen. Miller sat down with Collider to discuss the post-credits sequence, and how this impacts the viewing experience. He detailed how the footage acted like a teaser that might capture the attention of those who have yet to see Fury Road, without ruining the movie. Check out Miller’s comments below:

MILLER: A lot. The thing is, what you’re getting at the end credits on Furiosa is you’re getting a sample of what happens. So if you haven’t seen Fury Road, you’re not getting the experience of Fury Road, you’re getting, like, a little mini trailer of it. So, it’s quite a different experience. One is hopefully an immersive experience and the other is a kind of a little taste of it.

It’s like if you’re listening to some sort of extended piece of music, a symphony or a rock opera or something, and you just play a few sample bars of it at the end. So, these were all things I thought about. But I thought because it feels — I’m sure there are other examples but I can’t think of any — like there’s a direct flow from the end of one story into another one, I felt it was worth doing. And if you haven’t seen Fury Road, it really won’t make very much difference at all.

How Furiosa’s Ending Could Set Up Future Mad Max Movies

Imperator Furiosa’s Story Has Been Told, But One Post-Credits Shot Suggests A Follow-Up Could Focus On Another Character

Furiosa‘s epic story is one of revenge and fury, while Fury Road is a tale filled with hope and possibility, and the scene has been set for a potential third installment of new Mad Max movies that could serve as a follow-up to Mad Max: Fury Road. The final shot of Furiosa‘s post-credits sequence lingers on Nux’s bird bobblehead from Mad Max: Fury Road, suggesting that his character could play a prominent role in any sequel movie, which would be a great way to bring the franchise full circle in the form of two separate trilogies. It seems improbable that Miller would choose to include this nod to Nicholas Hoult’s character unless the character was going to feature heavily in a future movie.

Following the success of Fury Road, Miller revealed he had scripted a sequel to the movie, the delayed Mad Max: The Wasteland, which was expected to be a follow-up focused on Tom Hardy’s Max Rockatansky. However, whether this movie will wind up happening remains to be seen, and it could be the case that the sequel film will instead focus on Nux, and how he becomes one of Immortan Joe’s War Boys, before encountering Furiosa, and the events of Fury Road.

Of course, any follow-up Mad Max movie could depend on Furiosa’s box office performance, not to mention Miller’s schedule, and the availability of the cast and crew involved. IMDb lists Mad Max: The Wasteland as currently in production, though how far along in the process this might be is anybody’s guess. The impact and influence of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga on future installments looks set to be strong, and Miller’s decision to include the franchise’s first-ever post-credits sequence shows the faith he has in the movie, as well as a desire to provide a link between the films.

Source: Collider