Why isn’t Charlize Theron in Furiosa? Mad Max recast explained

Mad Max: Fury Road produced one of modern cinema’s most iconic heroines with Charlize Theron’s Furiosa — so why isn’t she in the new prequel movie?

He may have been behind the movie’s name, but Max arguably wasn’t the lead of Fury Road — it was Imperator Furiosa, Immortan Joe’s formidable war rig runner who rebels against the Citadel to find the Green Place… along with all of his wives.

Theron’s character was responsible for some of the film’s best moments; notably, her desperate scream in the desert, arguably the movie’s most iconic shot.

A decade later, we’re returning to the wasteland with Anya Taylor-Joy’s new Max Max movie — but can fans expect to see Theron?

Is Charlize Theron in Furiosa?

No, Charlize Theron isn’t in Furiosa. The role was recast for the prequel, with Anya Taylor-Joy playing the character in the new film.

Warner Bros.

While Furiosa follows a younger version of the titular hero, Theron was still disappointed. “It’s a tough one to swallow,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.

“Listen, I fully respect George, if not more so in the aftermath of making Fury Road with him. He’s a master, and I wish him nothing but the best.

“Yeah, it’s a little heartbreaking, for sure. I really love that character, and I’m so grateful that I had a small part in creating her. She will forever be someone I think of and reflect on fondly. Obviously, I would love to see that story continue, and if he feels like he has to go about it this way, then I trust him in that manner.

“We get so hung up on the smaller details that we forget the thing that we emotionally tap into has nothing to do with that minute thing that we’re focusing on.”

Theron isn’t alone: Tom Hardy also won’t return in Furiosa, but that doesn’t mean Mad Max won’t appear somewhere along the way.

Why was Furiosa recast with Anya Taylor-Joy?

George Miller recast Furiosa because the movie is set around 20 years before Mad Max: Fury Road. Instead of using digital de-aging on Theron, he wanted to cast a younger actress.

Warner Bros.

That’s not to say Miller didn’t consider bringing Theron back. As explained to Comic Book, the director wanted to pursue the prequel as soon as possible, which would have meant Theron returning to the role.

“So, everyone read a script a few years ago, the concept art and everything, and everyone read the screenplay in order to do Fury Road, not just the actors but everybody,” he said.

“[Theron] read it about six months before, and she said ‘We’ve got to do this first.’ I said, Charlize, we’ve been trying to do this movie for almost a decade and we’re all prepared to do this one. We have to do it, but she was very excited about it… my intention was that we do it, we do it next.”

Things got a bit more complicated as Warner Bros’ top brass changed around. A lot of time passed, but Miller was still happy to proceed with Theron — until he saw de-aging in action.

“Then I saw these other movies like The Irishman, where they made people younger and particularly I saw Gemini Man. I was looking at was the technology; I wasn’t looking at performance. I thought, ‘We can’t do it,'” he said.

Will Charlize Theron ever play Furiosa again?

Charlize Theron is open to playing Furiosa in another Mad Max movie, but it hasn’t been confirmed if this will ever happen.

Warner Bros.

Theron reportedly signed a three-picture deal before Fury Road, but the franchise’s future remains unclear. Miller hopes to pivot to Mad Mad: The Wasteland next, a movie exploring the road warrior’s story before Fury Road — but he hasn’t said whether or not that would include Furiosa.

“In doing what we did in the preparation of Mad Max: Fury Road, we also wrote what happened to Max in the year before we encounter him… the writers know what happened to Mad Max in that year before, and we have a whole story of that, which I would like to do sometime if I get the chance,” he told EW.

Theron has expressed interest in returning as Furiosa, telling THR: “I never really truly appreciated or respected George Miller’s vision until I saw it and went, ‘Oh my God, this is what was in his head the whole time and I couldn’t hear it.” And so it’s the one movie where I go, ‘If I had another opportunity, I’d get a little bit more of what he tried to do in the first one.'”

Before the Furiosa release date, make sure you check out our breakdown of when Furiosa is set in the Mad Max timeline, and other new movies to stream this month.