Is Furiosa A Prequel? Where It Fits In The Mad Max Timeline

Despite the overall confusion of the Mad Max timeline, the upcoming Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has its own designated place in the franchise. Since the announcement of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – known simply as Furiosa – in December 2020, little has been revealed about the Mad Max spin-off. That is until the first trailer for Furiosa was released at CCXP 2023, offering audiences a first glimpse at George Miller’s return to the Wasteland for the first time since 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road.

Furiosa‘s stacked cast of characters includes Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular character first portrayed by Charlize Theron in Fury Road. Joining her is Chris Hemsworth as Warlord Dementus, the tyrannical leader of a Biker Horder in the Wasteland. While the connections between Mad Max and Furiosa‘s story may seem simple at first, they become increasingly muddled when taking into account one of the more confusing franchise timelines in modern cinema. As such, several questions are being asked about where Furiosa takes place on the timeline of Mad Max movies and whether it serves as a prequel to the 2015 film, Mad Max: Fury Road.

Furiosa Is A Prequel To Mad Max: Fury Road

Anya Taylor-Joy brings a younger version of Charlize Theron’s Fury Road character to life.

Despite the confusion surrounding the film, it has been confirmed that Furiosa is a prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Above anything else, the premise for the former confirms this when placed in comparison to the story for the latter. In Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa and the titular Max Rockatansky embark on a quest to reach somewhere known only as the Green Place which Furiosa remembers from her childhood. Upon reaching the Green Place, which is uninhabitable by the time of Fury Road, a woman states that she recognizes Furiosa as one of their own who was kidnapped as a child.

As more details have been released about Furiosa: A Mad Maz Saga, so too has the basic outline of the film’s premise. According to an official release from Warner Bros., Furiosa‘s premise reads:

As the world falls, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and into the hands of a Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. While two Tyrants war for dominance over the Citadel, Furiosa survives many trials as she plots a way back home through the Wasteland.

As evident by the film’s main story, Furiosa lines up with Mad Max: Fury Road. The trailer for the film supports this, showing the Green Place and the moment in which Furiosa is taken from her home. Concerning the gap between Furiosa and Fury Road, it seemingly lines up. Anya Taylor-Joy is around 20 years younger than Charlize Theron, yet nothing in Mad Max: Fury Road nor Furiosa‘s trailer seems to disprove that two decades could have passed between the two movies.

Where Furiosa Fits Into The Timeline Of Other Mad Max Movies

Does Furiosa’s prequel story fit with the time jump to Mad Max: Fury Road?

Despite the simple enough concept of Furiosa tying into Mad Max: Fury Road, it becomes infinitely more confusing when attempting to place each movie on the timeline by date. In the trailer for Furiosa, the opening text states that the titular character was taken from her home 45 years after the collapse, presumable the collapse of society. However, Mad Max: Fury Road shows Tom Hardy’s Max donning a tattoo that states it has been 33 years since “the fall” which can only be presumed as the same event as the collapse: the apocalypse.

Given that the original Mad Max, set in the early 1980s, detailed the apocalypse itself, Mad Max: Fury Road‘s hints should place that film at around 2013. However, Furiosa supposedly takes place before Fury Road despite the trailer implying the film is set in the 2020s. All of this makes the Mad Max timeline infinitely confusing, something that has been a constant for the franchise since the release of Mad Mad: Fury Road.

Why The Mad Max Movie Timeline Is So Confusing

Little care and concern has been shown towards Mad Max’s timeline or continuity.

The primary reason as to why the Mad Max timeline is so confusing is simply the endlessly contradictory information provided. It would have been easy to assume Mad Max: Fury Road is a complete reboot of the series, telling a different version of events using the premise from the original Mad Max trilogy. That said, prequel tie-in comics to Fury Road have since connected the film to the original trilogy, meaning Tom Hardy’s Max is supposed to be the same character as Mel Gibson’s. This is evidently not supported by the films, as Hardy’s Max should have been in his 60s/70s if this were the case.

This confusion is only furthered by Furiosa‘s conflicting timeline placement. To make matters worse, director George Miller has never seemed all that concerned with clearing up Mad Max‘s timeline, No official confirmation, mapped-out timeline, revised dates, or concrete evidence has ever been provided by Miller or Warner Bros. to clarify Mad Max’s timeline, with anything in this vein now more sorely needed than ever given the further contradictions of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.