Warning: Major spoilers for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga below!

Charlize Theron has a surprise cameo of sorts in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and it’s not from the Fury Road montage that closes the film. Mad Max: Fury Road spent over a decade in development hell, and the movie’s shoot was legendarily tough. Not only did it result in the best Mad Max movie, but this 2015 sequel was one of the best action movies of the decade, period. While developing Fury Road, Miller developed two prequel stories alongside it. One followed Max and is dubbed The Wasteland, while Furiosa detailed the origin of Charlize Theron’s Imperator.

This prequel would itself spend years in development hell, but sadly, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was a box-office bomb. The film is doing well on VOD, but it feels like another outing in the series is a long way off. Regardless of the tepid box office, Furiosa still received a broadly positive critical reaction, with Anya Taylor-Joy being praised for her turn as the title character. It was no small task replacing Charlize Theron, but the transition from the prequel version of the character to Fury Road feels weirdly seamless.

Charlize Theron Appears At The End Of Furiosa, Reusing A Deleted Fury Road Scene

Furiosa viewers will have to squint in the final scene to see Charlize Theron’s Furiosa

For much of Anya Taylor-Joy’s screentime in the prequel, she doesn’t bear a huge physical resemblance to Theron’s Furiosa. She retains her long hair and only loses her arm towards the final chapter. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’s ending has the character shaving her head and becoming the character seen in the next entry. In the final shot of Furiosa, it’s even possible to see a shot of Charlize Theron playing the role, as the titular Imperator is seen leading Immortan Joe’s wives to hide in The War Rig.

This final scene is dimly lit and Furiosa’s face is hard to see, but brightening the image leaves no doubt that Theron is playing the role. Of course, this isn’t new footage, but a deleted scene recycled from Mad Max: Fury Road. This was confirmed on X, as the movie’s storyboard artist Mark H Sexton revealed this scene was filmed for Fury Road and repurposed for Furiosa. While some fans would have loved Theron to have reprised the role, this “cameo” is her only real appearance in the film.

Why Charlize Theron Didn’t Return For Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Miller was wise to avoid CGI de-aging on Furiosa

After Mad Max: Fury Road was released there were already calls out for a sequel. Unfortunately, the wheels turned slow on the next film, so by the time Furiosa was greenlit, Charlize Theron had aged out of being able to play a younger take on the Imperator. While CG de-aging was considered, Miller explained to Empire (via IGN) that he didn’t feel the tech was there to convincingly pull off the effect after watching other big movies try it.

I began thinking, ‘Oh, maybe we could do de-aging.’ Then I watched really masterful filmmakers like Ang Lee and Martin Scorsese, doing Gemini Man and The Irishman, and I saw that it hadn’t been licked. All you’d be watching is, ‘Look how well the technology works?’ It would not have been persuasive.

Despite this, Miller employed AI to combine the facial features of young Furiosa performer Alyla Browne with Anya Taylor-Joy. This had the effect of making it feel like Browne bore an uncanny resemblance to the adult Furiosa, and then sold the transition between the stars. It’s a shame Theron will likely never get to play Furiosa again, but it can’t be denied that Taylor-Joy did an incredible job embodying the character.

Source: X, IGN