NEW MUTANTS Star Anya Taylor-Joy in The Running To Play Furiosa in MAD MAX Spinoff Film

As George Miller prepares to start shooting his Mad Max: Fury Road spinoff prequel film that will focus on a younger Furiosa next year, he and the studio have been remotely meeting with actresses who could potentially play the character.

It was previously reported that Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) was in the running to play young Furiosa. Now, according to Variety, Anya Taylor-Joy (The New Mutants, Glass) is one of the other actresses in talks for the role that was previously played by Charlize Theron.

Miller has been very keen on telling Furiosa’s backstory, so I’m happy to see that this is something he’s really moving forward with. I’ve noticed some people aren’t happy with Theron being replaced as Furiosa, but this movie does focus on a much younger version of the character, so it does make sense to cast another actress.

I think both Comer and Taylor-Joy are great choices and there are obviously more actresses being considered, and it will be interesting to see who actually ends up landing the role.

Richard Madden (Cinderella, Rocketman) is also wanted for the film, and if cast, he would play “a breathtakingly handsome man with an angel’s face that is scarred by a deep forehead wound stitched together with shiny chrome staples.” Yayha Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman) is also on the wishlist for a role.

When previously talking about Furiosa, Miller hinted that the backstory is one he would like to explore:

"Yeah, she’s a pretty compelling character so it would be great to tell her story. Her backstory is really interesting. We only allude to it in this movie because this movie is on the run; people don’t have much time for recreational talk. But you pick up, you have a sense of her having gone through stuff. That’s what the film is trying to do. You’re trying to put a lot of iceberg under the tip, I like saying. One of the things that’s really gratifying, people are reading the film more than just the surface — the events of the movie, and just picking up a lot of stuff underneath it, which is very deliberate......So in many ways, the audience is picking up a lot about Furiosa — or enough to intrigue. And she’s got an interesting story."

Miller is expected to start production on the film as soon as he's done filming his current project, Three Thousand Years of Longing. He hopes that will be in 2021.

What do you think about the possibility of Anya Taylor-Joy taking on the role of Furiosa?