Chris Hemsworth isn’t exactly known for playing villainous roles, but he’s apparently going to be doing just that in the upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, Furiosa. New details about Furiosa are revealed in the new book “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road,” including how Hemsworth came to be attached to the project in the first place.
Fury Road producer and first assistant director P.J. Voeten is quoted in the book as saying director George Miller initially took a meeting with Hemsworth “as a courtesy,” but eventually warmed up the idea. “He’s going to play totally against type, the lead baddie. Unfortunately, we’ve got to find all of our other characters that aren’t around anymore: a new Immortan, a new Bullet Farmer, and a few others,” Voeten said, as reported by SlashFilm.
Back in 2021, Hemsworth appeared in Sydney alongside Miller to announce that Furiosa will film in their home country of Australia. We also learned a few details about the film at the time, including that the story of Furiosa will take place over “many years” unlike the relatively contained story in Fury Road.
Whereas Fury Road’s story takes place over three days and two nights, Furiosa’s story will be much bigger in scope. “This is a saga; it happens over many years, so there’s a lot of different elements to it. But that’s all I should say,” Miller said.
Furiosa is a prequel to Fury Road, featuring The Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy as the younger version of the character played by Charlize Theron in the 2015 film.
Hemsworth has a number of high-profile upcoming projects in the works, including Thor: Love and Thunder and Extraction 2 for 2022. Furiosa isn’t expected to arrive for a few years.