Furiosa Must Kill Mad Max Franchise Canon, Return To What Makes The Saga Special
After nearly a decade-long wait, we are finally getting another Mad Max movie! However, this one is quite a departure from the way the previous movies have done things. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will be the first time a prequel has ever been released in the franchise, and I have mixed feelings about that.
One of the trademarks of the Mad Max franchise so far was that every movie functioned as a standalone story. Furiosa is now breaking that tradition, but for the good of the franchise, hopefully, this will be a one-time exception.
Mad Max Work Best As Standalone Movies
One of the quickest ways to alienate a fanbase is to start deviating from what they loved in the first place. Everyone who has watched the Mad Max movies has praised how different they feel with each “sequel” really just being a different window into this world.
Even going from the original Mad Max to either of the first two sequels, each one functions perfectly well watching any of them in any order with no prior knowledge of the others. Despite Mel Gibson starring in all three parts of the “trilogy,” they were essentially standalone films. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is the first movie that will change that.
Don’t Fix What Isn’t Broken
While it is understandable why George Miller would want to explore Furiosa further given her popularity after Mad Max: Fury Road, we have also seen what happens with other franchises that start toying with their formula too much. The Halloween franchise is one of the most infamous examples, with the first two original movies establishing the antagonist of Michael Myers.
By the third movie, the writers decided they really wanted the franchise to be an anthology series and put out Halloween III: Season of the Witch which had nothing to do with Myers. Critics and fans felt misled and blasted the movie so heavily that the fourth movie immediately switched back to focusing on Michael Myers and that is how the franchise has been ever since.
Alienating Potential New Fans
Mad Max fans have come to like the way that the franchise works. Messing with that now risks alienating that fanbase unnecessarily. If surviving characters from previous movies start showing up in sequels that require the viewer to know all about the other movies, it changes that tone. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is already taking a gamble as the first clear prequel and has early fan impressions feeling it looks more like a typical action movie. Fans are skeptical if this will live up to the standards of the other Mad Max movies
We Don’t Need Answers To Everything
Sure, there are mysteries surrounding Furiosa for the prequel to explore, like how exactly she wound up with her metal arm, but the answers to such questions are often disappointing. Sometimes the speculation is more fun than the definitive answer. Many Star Wars fans would no doubt argue the prequel films did more damage to the franchise than good by doing a clumsy job providing answers to mysteries from the original trilogy. It would be a shame for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga to retroactively tarnish Fury Road by doing a shoddy job.
Canon Needs To End With Furiosa
Regardless of how Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga turns out, George Miller would do well to keep any sequels as the anthology style we all know. With the original trilogy, many fans debate if Mel Gibson’s Max is even the same character across the three movies. Having those mysteries is the kind of intrigue Mad Max fans have come to enjoy so much, and those are traditions that should continue to be respected.
