--- description: Everything we know about The Wasteland, the next planned installment in George Miller's saga. title: What's Next for Mad Max After Furiosa? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte662b97b0740ce57/698877178e06012fc4463ef0/mad-max-fury-road_ui9lll.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # What's Next for Mad Max After _Furiosa_  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent May 24, 2024 11:00 AM CUT  Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury RoadWarner Bros.  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent May 24, 2024 11:00 AM CUT Attentive audience members will have noticed the original hero of the Mad Max films, Max Rockatansky, in _Furiosa_, now in theaters. In the briefest of scenes, Furiosa races past a dune in the desert. On top of that dune stands a man next to a car. That man, watching the action from above, is presumably Max, alongside his famous vehicle, the Interceptor. If director George Miller has his way, we will see Max again. Miller has spent over 40 years working on various _Mad Max_ films. But at 79 he isn't quite done yet. As the [director recently told TIME](https://time.com/6975716/george-miller-furiosa-interview/ "undefined"), he has completed another story centered on Max tentatively titled _The Wasteland_. Whether that long-rumored film moves ahead depends on the fate of _Furiosa_ at the box office. "Depending on whether _Furiosa_ gets traction or not, that movie is on the horizon,” he says. Will [Tom Hardy](https://time.com/3770331/tom-hardy-mad-max-fury-road-movie-george-miller/ "undefined") return to play Max? Miller smiles conspiratorially. “If the planets align.” Miller has shared little information on _The Wasteland_. But here is what we know. **Read more:** [Furiosa _Is All Spectacle and No Vision_](https://time.com/6978271/furiosa-review/ "undefined") ## What is _The Wasteland_? The 2015 movie _Mad Max: Fury Road_ diverged from the _Mad Max_ franchise in several ways. First, Miller replaced Mel Gibson with Tom Hardy in the role of Max, the grizzled cop who lost his family at the beginning of the apocalypse. Second, he centered the action of _Fury Road_ not on Max but a new protagonist: Imperator Furiosa (played by [Charlize Theron](https://time.com/4874478/charlize-theron-atomic-blonde/ "undefined") in _Fury Road_ and [Anya Taylor-Joy](https://time.com/collection/time100-next-2021/5937738/anya-taylor-joy/ "undefined") in _Furiosa_). When Miller was developing _Fury Road_—a nearly two-decade-long process—he wrote an entire backstory for Furiosa and shared it with his cast and crew so that they could understand her motivations. That origin tale became the basis for _Furiosa_. He also wrote a story centered on Max that filled in the blanks between Max's last appearance in the franchise, in 1985's _Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome_ (when the character was still played by Gibson) and the events of _Fury Road_. Set about a year before the events of _Fury Road_, it follows Max on some adventure in the barren, post-apocalyptic desert. ## When does the _Wasteland_ take place relative to _Furiosa_? Miller told TIME that the _Wasteland_ is set one year before the events of _Mad Max: Fury Road_. Given that the action of _Furiosa_ runs up to the events of _Fury Road_—_Furiosa_ literally ends with a montage previewing _Fury Road'_s epic chase scene—that means _The Wasteland_ will overlap with the end of _Furiosa_. ## Who is starring in _The Wasteland_? The film has not been green lit and has not begun casting, so it is not yet known who will star in the sixth _Mad Max_ film. But Miller told TIME he is hoping that Hardy will reprise his role as Max. We know that Max and Furiosa don't meet until the events of _Fury Road_, so it is unlikely Taylor-Joy will show up in _The Wasteland_. However, there's a chance we could see other characters from _Furiosa_, like Chris Hemsworth's villain Dementus, pop up. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6980226/furiosa-the-wasteland-future/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6980226/furiosa-the-wasteland-future/"},"headline":"What's Next for Mad Max After Furiosa","datePublished":"2024-05-24T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T17:39:07.808Z","description":"George Miller tells TIME he has plans for another Mad Max film called 'The Wasteland.'","url":"https://time.com/6980226/furiosa-the-wasteland-future/","keywords":["movies","Explainer","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte662b97b0740ce57/698877178e06012fc4463ef0/mad-max-fury-road_ui9lll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte662b97b0740ce57/698877178e06012fc4463ef0/mad-max-fury-road_ui9lll.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"mad-max-fury-road_UI9lll","caption":"Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road","creditText":"Warner Bros.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6980226/furiosa-the-wasteland-future/","name":"What's Next for Mad Max After Furiosa"}}]}] ```