Charlize Theron Deserves Her Furiosa Sequel

I’ve been a fan of the Mad Max franchise since I was a kid watching Mad Max and Mad Max: Beyond Thunder Dome on cable. When Mad Max: Fury Road came out in 2015, I immediately fell in love with the sequel due to its beautiful cinematography, practical effects, and, of course, Charlize Theron’s character, Imperator Furiosa. The reluctant partnership between the new character and Max was the emotional core of that movie. 

When it was announced that a standalone movie about Furiosa was coming, I assumed it would be a sequel starring Charlize Theron. After all, her backstory had already been told, if not explored, in Mad Max: Fury Road and Theron’s performance was almost universally praised. The news that it would instead be a prequel starring Anya Taylor-Joy was both surprising and a little disappointing. 

I trust George Miller as a creator enough that I’m not worried about Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga being a bad movie, but it can’t be the Chalirze Theron sequel I wanted it to be, and it has unique problems. The prequel will have to overcome the fact that audiences already know how the movie will end, and some of the story beats leading up to that. Anya Taylor-Joy’s performance will also have to overcome the expectations set by an Oscar-winning actress. 

A Furiosa sequel starring Charlize Theron would have avoided those problems and has its own inherent advantages. The ending of Mad Max: Fury Road left Furiosa in a position of power, setting her apart from the low-status position Max has always had in his role as protagonist. It would also give Theron a chance to build on her previous performance. 

Of course, there’s no reason a Furiosa sequel that brings Charlize Theron back can’t still happen. With early reviews for the prequel being positive it’s clear that the character works as a solo protagonist, justifying another film that jumps ahead in time with her. If the prequel is another smash hit, it could also provide an economic incentive to continue the character’s story. 

I want a Furiosa sequel for story reasons, but more than that, I want to see more of Charlize Theron as the character. She brought a rugged intensity to the role that feels perfectly at home in the Mad Max world but still unique among action heroes. She was a well-written character in Mad Max: Fury Road, but it was Theron’s performance that elevated the character and stole the show. 

George Miller knows what’s best for his franchise and, obviously, saw an angle he wanted to explore with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. But I hope that moving forward with the franchise, he will give Charlize Theron the chance to play the character again in a sequel. The actress deserves her own movie, and as a fan, I would be happy to see more movies about the character.