Where Furiosa Takes Place On The Mad Max Timeline Confirmed By Director (With A Max Tease, Too)

Furiosa director George Miller clarifies where the upcoming Mad Max film falls in the franchise timeline. Furiosa takes on the backstory of the character popularized by Charlize Theron in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular protagonist, Furiosa is set for release on May 24, 2024.

Miller confirms where Furiosa takes place within the chronology of the other Mad Max films. Speaking at a CCXP23 panel (via omeleteve), Miller confirmed that Furiosa’s “story happens 15 years directly before Mad Max: Fury Road.”

The director also teased that “Max is lurking around somewhere in the story.” Check out the full quote from Miller below:

This story happens 15 years directly before Mad Max: Fury Road, and it runs straight into it, and Max is lurking around somewhere in this story, but it’s really the story of Furiosa and how she got to be. A lot of the film will be familiar, and a lot of it’s new, which we haven’t seen before.

Why Furiosa’s Timeline Creates Interesting Possibilities

While Furiosa exists in the same universe as Mad Max: Fury Road, its plot will largely be separate from the events of that movie. Taking place 15 years prior, the film will give itself time to show the buildup to the characters and world that viewers know from Mad Max: Fury Road. The full plot of the film has yet to be revealed, though the Furiosa trailer promises an action-packed return of the lead character as audiences witness Furiosa’s rise to the warrior she later becomes.

As Furiosa attempts to expand that world, it will be interesting to see how the “familiar” and “new” elements interact. As the Furiosa trailer reveals, the film is set “45 years after the collapse,” meaning that the world is already in post-apocalyptic disarray. This will allow Furiosa to carry many of the same themes of Mad Max: Fury Road, as the sand-inundated tale of environmental destruction has already begun.

With a decade-and-a-half still to go before Mad Max: Fury Road, however, there is still a lot that can happen to make society fall further into collapse. Furiosa is an interesting character in that she separated from her family and has to weather the world alone in an intense, sandy, and often violent environment. Within that, there are endless possibilities to explore further adventures and lore as Furiosa introduces audiences to elements that they “haven’t seen before.”