upcoming prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is highly anticipated and will contain

The Mad Max franchise is one of the greatest, and clearly one of the most influential, action sagas in the history of cinema. The films’ vision of the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the Australian desert launched countless imitators in the subsequent decades, and it’s the rare recurring series in which every installment is helmed by the same auteur filmmaker: the legendary genius George Miller. Miller’s original trilogy steadily grew in popularity with each installment, and his handcrafted action sequences and dedication to world-building soon introduced the saga of Max Rockatansky beyond Australia and to an international audience. After the original series concluded in 1985, Miller worked for decades and overcame numerous production setbacks to deliver the critically acclaimed fourth installment.

While its unclear when its titular character will undertake his next big screen adventure, the Mad Max franchise is far from over. Miller’s latest project is the highly anticipated prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy as a younger version of the future Imperator. While Furiosa‘s production was met with setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic and legal issues, the first teaser trailer indicated that the new installment in the series will contain all the great action mayhem that fans have come to expect from a film within the Mad Max universe. Furiosa is set to hit theaters on May 24, 2024.

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is half of a great film. The first hour of Beyond Thunderdome changed up the typical racing action sequences by introducing the thunderdome itself, distinguishing its action from the previous installments in the series. The dystopian motorcycle cage battles were a great concept and provided a new challenge for Mel Gibson’s Max, and the larger budget didn’t feel at odds with the grimness of the post-apocalypse. You also get a gloriously hammy performance from Tina Turner as the eccentric Entity, who rules with an iron fist over Bordertown.

It’s when the film goes “beyond thunderdome” that it makes a shift into being more heartfelt. The series had some sentimental moments in the first two installments, but for the first time, Max became more openly heroic when he helped a tribe of orphaned children searching for a legendary “Tomorrow-morrow Land.” While Max needed to develop for what was a temporary conclusion to his character arc, it came as a drastic shift from his usually grim persona. Beyond Thunderdome’s conclusion certainly isn’t all a wash, and the train action sequence is among the best moments in the series. It is still an underrated science fiction sequel that only suffers in comparison to the other installments in the franchise.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
In the third of the “Mad Max” movies, Max (Mel Gibson) drifts into an evil town ruled by Turner. There he becomes a gladiator and gets dumped in the desert where he is rescued by a band of feral orphans who have been looking for help for years. When several of them take his appearance as a sign and go off into the desert, he follows them back to the town.