The box office disappointment of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has put plans for the next entry in danger, but George Miller could save it if he resurrects his original plan for the 2024 prequel. Following the third Mad Max movie in 1985, Miller had little interest in revisiting his high-octane saga. He moved on to other projects, but after short-lived discussions about a potential Mad Max TV series in the 1990s, the concept behind Fury Road came to him. He suddenly got very excited about returning, though Mad Max: Fury Road’s tortured development has become the stuff of legend.

Miller and his crew had years to develop the world and lore behind Fury Road, to the point where they developed two other scripts. Both Furiosa and The Wasteland serve as prequels to Mad Max: Fury Road, detailing what Charlize Theron’s Imperator and Tom Hardy’s Road Warrior were doing before their bumpy road trip. Nearly a decade on from Fury Road’s release, Furiosa opened to poor box office numbers despite largely positive reviews. In the aftermath of the prequel’s performance, there is concern that the series could be finished.

George Miller Should Turn Mad Max: The Wasteland Into An Anime

Furiosa nearly saw life as an anime spinoff during the 2010s

This means Miller’s planned follow-up Mad Max: The Wasteland won’t happen. In a 2024 interview with Forbes, Hardy himself cast doubt on the film, stating plainly “I don’t think that’s happening.” Furiosa just about covered its reported production budget with its $172.7 million box office haul, which is a disappointing result by any measure. One direction Miller could take with The Wasteland is turning it into an anime instead, which was the original plan for Furiosa early in development.

During the early 2010s, Miller planned to shoot Furiosa and Max Max: Fury Road back to back, but he dropped that notion during pre-production. Miller then mounted Furiosa as an anime, with Mahiro Maeda (The Animatrix) as director of the project. Extensive concept art was drawn up for this animated adventure, but it was scrapped due to Fury Road’s ever-fluctuating production schedule. It’s easy to see why this original plan was considered since the aesthetic of Miller’s most recent Mad Max adventures would be a great fit for anime; this is also why Miller should reconsider it for The Wasteland.

If he wanted to bring back Hardy to voice Max, this would also bypass the age issue. Mad Max: The Wasteland is a prequel to Fury Road, yet Hardy shot the latter in 2012. It would be hard to convince viewers outside of some CGI de-aging – a technique Miller is not a fan of – that Hardy is a younger version of Max, but that wouldn’t be an issue with an anime. It’s unlikely Warner Bros will be greenlighting The Wasteland anytime soon, but making an anime movie would be cheaper to produce but wouldn’t force Miller to compromise his vision.

Why The Furiosa Anime Was Cancelled

A Mad Max anime is something that SHOULD exist

Miller retains tight creative control over Mad Max, explaining the limited amount of merchandise or offshoots like comics that have been spun off from it. Again, the property feels like a perfect match for anime, which is why an animated Furiosa came so close to existing. Sadly, a delay in filming for Fury Road meant the anime tie-in was canceled. When remounting it as a live-action movie, the story was already largely mapped out thanks to the work done on the anime. Even design elements created for the unmade animated feature were repurposed for the 2024 version.

The artwork for the anime gives an intriguing alternate look at how the story would have played out too. It would have made for a fascinating companion to Mad Max: Fury Road, though in hindsight, maybe it was best to let audiences imagine what Furiosa’s backstory was in the immediate aftermath of the movie’s release. Charlize Theron claimed reading the Furiosa script was incredibly helpful for getting into the character’s mindset, and the eventual film did a great job of fleshing out the world even further.

Could Mad Max: The Wasteland Still Happen In Live-Action?

Mad Max 5 will have an uphill struggle to get made at Warner Bros

Furiosa may have had a disappointing box office haul, but it has been performing well on VOD. Overall, the prequel will still be labeled a flop, and Miller once said Mad Max: The Wasteland depended on how well Furiosa performed. Warner Bros will be in no rush to make another entry, and realistically, the prequel could be the end of the franchise on the big screen for the foreseeable future. Perhaps Miller could work from a smaller budget for The Wasteland, or even remount the project as a miniseries instead.

After all, Furiosa is divided into five chapters, which easily could have been TV episodes in themselves. Turning Mad Max: The Wasteland into an anime feature or TV series are viable options too, but there probably won’t be any major announcements about the franchise’s future anytime soon. Still, if the last audiences see of Max chronologically is him nodding goodbye to Theron’s Furiosa, that feels like an oddly poignant way to sign off.

Source: Forbes, The Numbers