Anya Taylor-Joy will be stepping into the shoes of a young Furiosa in a Mad Max: Fury Road spinoff, which will co-star Chris Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul Mateen-II, Deadline reported.
The next film- titled Furiosa- is based on the story of the Imperator Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) directed by George Miller. The spinoff will delve deeper into Furiosa’s life.
The spinoff will be directed, co-written (along with Nico Lathouris) and produced by Miller under the banner of his Australia-based company Kennedy Miller Mitchell and his long time partner-producer Doug Mitchell.
Elaborating on the characters’ backstories for the last 15 years, as the director revealed in May to The New York Times, Furiosa‘s screenplay was ready even before the shooting for Mad Max: Fury Road had begun, to assist Theron get the character better.
“For the longest time, I thought we could just use CG de-ageing on Charlize, but I don’t think we’re nearly there yet,” Miller continued. “Despite the valiant attempts on The Irishman, I think there’s still an uncanny valley. Everyone is on the verge of solving it, particular Japanese video-game designers, but there’s still a pretty wide valley, I believe,” he added.
Thus, instead of casting Theron, he chose to cast a young actor.
Taylor-Joy recently finished filming Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho and is filming Robert Eggers’ The Northman. She was recently seen in the romantic comedy Emma, based on the Jane Austen novel by the same name. She will next be seen starring as a chess prodigy in the miniseries The Queen’s Gambit.
Hemsworth is star of Marvel’s Avengers and Thor franchise. The latest sequel Thor: Love & Thunder is expected to begin filming early next year. Hemsworth was last seen in Netflix’s action thriller Extraction, which released earlier this year.
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Abdul-Mateen II starred as the iconic super villain Black Manta in James Wan’s Aquaman. He is filming the fourth instalment in The Matrix series and was seen as Bobby Seale in Netflix’s The Trial of the Chicago 7. Next up, he will star in Universal/MGM’s Candyman, releasing in 2021. Abdul-Mateen II recently won an Emmy Award for his performance in the acclaimed limited series Watchmen.
As per Deadline, Miller’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes such longtime Australian collaborators as production designer Colin Gibson, editor Margaret Sixel, sound mixer Ben Osmo, and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt, each of whom won an Oscar for their work on Mad Max: Fury Road.
Miller is working on Three Thousand Years of Longing, featuring Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba.