When Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga crashed and burned at the box office last year, earning just $174M and reportedly losing Warner Bros. $120M, it basically killed any hopes of more Mad Max stuff from George Miller. A shame, because the hope was that he would finally have the chance to shoot The Wasteland, a prequel with Tom Hardy and set one year before Fury Road. It’s a project that Miller has talked about for years, and nearly had a green light until Furiosa’s failure and other contractual issues.
Well, maybe all is not lost. According to Mad Max Bible podcast (h/t World of Reel), Mad Max: The Wasteland is now being developed as a series for HBO Max. Shaun Grant (Nitram) was hired to write the script.
The Wasteland has gone through many different iterations over the decades. It began life as an idea for a TV show, then it was reconceived as a video game, before being reworked into a book, then a movie script, and now, apparently, back to a series.
One big question is whether Hardy would even want to play Mad Max again. He was attached to The Wasteland initially, but that was way back in 2017 and a lot has changed. If not, Miller would have to recast the role. We know he doesn’t mind doing that…however, the switch from Charlize Theron to Anya Taylor-Joy didn’t work out so hot for Furiosa, did it?
We’ll see about this. I seriously doubt WB wants to dump more cash into Mad Max right now, but stranger things have happened. Miller is a legend, fans love these movies, it could happen at the right cost.
