"Mad Max: Fury Road" was a bit of a gamble for Warner Bros. A hard R-rating on a 30-plus year old film franchise with a sizable budget of $150 million? It was hardly a gimmie for the studio.
But the film was met with widespread acclaim upon its release back in May and managed to rack up a decent chunk of $374.7 million worldwide, just enough to justify a sequel. But what will that sequel look like? Not even director George Miller knows.
According to the director himself, there are currently two "Mad Max" sequel scripts floating around and a bit of reluctance to jump right in given "Fury Road's" challenging eight month shoot. So while fans may see the legendary director return to the desert wasteland eventually, it might not be for some time.
Here's what Miller had to say about the planned sequels in an interview with Top Gear.
"So we ended up with two scripts, without really trying. We're talking to the studio about it as we speak, but which one of the two stories will happen next, I'm not so sure. I want to do a small film without special effects before I don any of that, just to do it quickly. We shot Fury Road for eight months...that's a lot. Every day in the heat and dust, doing these stunts, it's very wearing. We've got two more planned, but at some point in the future."
"Fury Road" was hardly a box office monster, especially when compared to the mega-bucks "Jurassic World" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron" generated. But it received some of the most positive reviews of any film this summer and reinvigorated interest in a long-dormant franchise.
One reason it may have struck a chord with audiences is the fact that Max is arguably not the main character. Instead, Charlize Theron's Imperator Furiosa captured the attention of most moviegoers and is a true action badass in every sense of the term. No one would blame Miller if he chose to follow up her storyline in a future sequel in addition to Tom Hardy's Max.
That's all we know at the moment, unfortunately. We'll keep you posted as more details begin to emerge.
