Furiosa Is Already Fixing Mad Max: Fury Road’s Greatest Weakness

Based on its trailers, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – George Miller’s Furiosa-centric prequel – seems to be fixing the one major flaw from Mad Max: Fury Road. Furiosa seeks to fill in the backstory of Charlize Theron’s scene-stealing character from Fury Road. In the prequel, Furiosa is played by Anya Taylor-Joy. She’s captured from the Green Place of Many Mothers by a Biker Horde, and sets out to exact revenge against the villainous Warlord Dementus, played by an against-type Chris Hemsworth (who seems to be having a lot of fun hamming it up to play a Mad Max baddie).

Released in 2015, Mad Max: Fury Road is an action movie masterpiece and one of the few action films to garner major nominations at the Academy Awards. In addition to a handful of technical categories, Fury Road earned nods for Best Picture and Best Director for Miller (although it lost to Spotlight and The Revenant, respectively). Fury Road received near-universal acclaim and it’s a near-perfect movie – but it has one key problem holding it back. With Furiosa, Miller seems to be rectifying that mistake for an even greater cinematic experience.

Mad Max: Fury Road Was A Testament To Action – But Not Character Development

Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the most breathtaking action movies ever made, but if there’s one major flaw in the movie, it’s that there simply isn’t much character development, and there isn’t even really much of a story. It’s essentially a feature-length car chase as Max, Furiosa, and Immortan Joe’s wives are pursued across the post-apocalyptic wasteland to a safe haven that doesn’t exist, then pursued all the way back to where they came from. As explosive and spectacular as the movie is, it falls short on the emotional front.

The stunt work and vehicular action in Mad Max: Fury Road are truly incredible, but the wall-to-wall spectacle doesn’t leave a lot of time for character arcs. The only character in the movie who truly changes from the beginning to the end is Nicholas Hoult’s Nux, and he’s a supporting player. Both Max and Furiosa are the same people at the end of the movie as they were at the beginning. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga seems to be fixing this Fury Road problem, balancing big action set-pieces with a real character arc and emotional stakes for its title character.

Furiosa Is Already Setting Up Bigger Emotional Stakes Than Fury Road

The second trailer for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga revealed a bit more about the story that the prequel will tell, and it’s already setting up much bigger emotional stakes and a more engaging dramatic storyline than Fury Road. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is setting up a Yojimbo-type storyline in which Furiosa comes between two warring Tyrants who are battling for control of the Citadel, all in pursuit of avenging her family. Her vendetta against the Warlord Dementus is different from the average hero-villain dynamic: it’s deeply personal.

The story will take place across 15 years, covering Furiosa’s entire backstory from her childhood to her adventure with Max in Fury Road. This timeline gives Miller plenty of opportunities for character development, as Furiosa will be shaped by her coming-of-age experiences. In Fury Road, Furiosa is the way she is and she doesn’t change from that hard-edged personality. But in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Miller will explain how she became the way she is in Fury Road, which will make for a more captivating story.

Furiosa Looks To Strike The Perfect Balance Between Action & Character Arcs

Just because Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is focusing more on its character arcs and emotional storytelling than Fury Road, it doesn’t mean it’ll be any less action-packed than Fury Road. The trailers have teased plenty of explosions and car chases to keep fans of Fury Road’s spectacle happy. But it won’t be an all-out action extravaganza like Fury Road, because it’s taking the time for an intimate character study.

With Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Miller seems to have found the perfect middle ground between the non-stop high-octane action of Mad Max: Fury Road and the compelling character arcs of more emotionally engaging movies. It’ll be great to see Taylor-Joy as a badass action hero, but her dramatic acting chops won’t be wasted as she’ll also have plenty of emotional material to work with. With a focus on character development, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga could end up being an even greater movie than its instant-classic predecessor.