Many viewers are curious as to when Mad Max 5 would be released after the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road left fans wanting to see more of the titular antihero. Long production pauses have never caused the Mad Max franchise a lot of stress. While the 1981 film The Road Warrior quickly followed the 1979 film Mad Max, the third entry in the series, Beyond Thunderdome, took much longer to reach theatres. While the fourth Mad Max film, Fury Road, took at least three decades to make, Tom Hardy ended up playing Max because Mel Gibson had outgrown the part that had made him famous.
By the time Mad Max 5 is released in whatever theatres are still standing in the last settlements of civilization, mathematically speaking, it will truly be the post-apocalypse. This is terrible because a new generation of Mad Max fans who cannot wait for the release of the next instalment have been inspired by George Miller’s 2015 reboot/sequel to his critically acclaimed genre-defining flicks from the 1980s. Despite the sequel’s positive reviews, no new Mad Max film has appeared during this time.
Why is Mad Max: The Wasteland taking so long to arrive in theatres when Fury Road restarted the franchise almost seven long years ago? The reason why Mad Max 5’s release date hasn’t been set in stone is complex. It concerns an ongoing legal dispute, the impending Furiosa spinoff film, and earlier obligations of series star Tom Hardy. While Mad Max: The Wasteland won’t be in theatres for quite some time due to the issues mentioned above, the franchise may end up being dormant for as long as ten years. Furiosa’s canon backstory may be shown on screen (comparatively) soon (or more, depending on the schedules of its star and director).
Mad Max 5: The Wasteland Explained
Contrary to what some Mad Max fans may have believed, a fifth film has been confirmed, and Tom Hardy, who plays its lead, said that he had already committed to several projects before the debut and subsequent success of Fury Road. Even the most ardent Mad Max franchise fans won’t be able to find out much about the ambitious plans that original creator and director George Miller has for the fifth film’s plot. Miller outlined these plans while making Fury Road. In actuality, there have been no developments surrounding the release of Mad Max 5, in contrast to the Mad Max prequel Furiosa, which is already set to arrive in theatres in 2024. Viewers currently only have access to the forthcoming sequel’s title, “The Wasteland,” which was revealed by Miller.
The sequel is likely to continue Max’s story in the iconic post-apocalyptic setting and, based on the name, may finally provide an explanation for how the Mad Max franchise’s fictional world came to an end. Various movies attribute the end of the world to nuclear war, fuel shortages, or a combination of the two. The series has a reputation for being notoriously ambiguous on the origin of its off-screen catastrophe. It follows that The Wasteland would explain the events that brought about Max’s world’s demise between the first and second movies, completing the continuously evolving Mad Max apocalypse background. The lack of a release date update for Mad Max 5 will inevitably lead to additional fan hypotheses and storyline speculators.
Why Mad Max 5: The Wasteland Is Taking So Long
The fifth Mad Max film’s title is well known, but the reason for its delayed release is a very different matter. Miller’s production group sued Mad Max: Fury Road’s distributor Warner Brothers in 2017 over a $7 million bonus that they claimed went underpaid, preventing any efforts to start a sequel. Despite Fury Road’s phenomenal box office record and critical acclaim, this lawsuit delayed the production of the subsequent Mad Max film for several years before a new problem arose. A new project for the franchise was unveiled in October 2020, although it wasn’t a Fury Road sequel.
The Furiosa Question
Miller claims that the Mad Max spinoff film starring Furiosa will be the biggest one yet, with a sizable budget and scope. The sequel to The Wasteland will have to wait even longer because the spinoff won’t be released in theatres until July 2024. Miller has had to recast Charlize Theron’s role as the younger Anya Taylor-Joy due to the original actor ageing out of the role as a result of the Furiosa movie’s delays. This, along with the film’s 2023–2024 release date postponement, show that the Mad Max franchise is taking its time on its first spinoff, which means The Wasteland will have to wait even longer. Legend of the action genre Charlize Theron is not the only person, though, whose evolving career has an impact on the future of the sci-fi action series.
Mad Max’s Star Tom Hardy Is Busy
Tom Hardy has become an increasingly successful starring man for big-budget films since the triumph of his role as Mad Max in 2015. Fans of Mad Max face a perfect storm that will delay the release of the next instalment in the series when they consider that Hardy is one of the top three candidates for the role of James Bond. The possibility of Hardy playing 007 could prove to be even more problematic for fans of the science fiction series, even though Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s success may have caused a delay in the creation of Mad Max: The Wasteland. While any significant upcoming Spider-Man ventures, like Hardy’s Venom, are guaranteed to be box office successes, the vast MCU’s scope means that entire films might be produced without Hardy’s direct involvement. In fact, the majority of Marvel fans appear to be content with Tom Hardy’s brief post-credits cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Venom is typically anticipated to make a comeback in the MCU in a more significant capacity much later on.
Playing James Bond, however, would be a completely different matter, as a 007 film would be incomplete without its star. The most recent cinematic exploits of the dapper super-spy have been delayed to reach theatres, with three years passing between Skyfall and Spectre’s premiere and six between Spectre and No Time To Die. To be honest, COVID-19 contributed to some of No Time To Die’s release date alterations, but the espionage genre was already sluggish in developing and releasing fresh films before this problem surfaced. In light of the fact that Hardy would be locked into a blockbuster series with a lengthy wait between new film releases, Mad Max movie fans have good reason to be concerned about the thought of Hardy playing Bond. However, Hardy hasn’t yet been asked to play 007 and may decide to decline the position, especially given that the critical acclaim of more recent Bond films falls short of the overwhelmingly positive reviews for Fury Road. Because of this, Mad Max fans might not need to worry about the franchise’s future, though it will probably be some time before they do.
George Miller’s Mad Max 5 Updates Explain Delay
Max Payne 5 According to The Wasteland director George Miller, the main reason for the delay is likely that the story has not yet fully developed. Fortunately, this implies that Miller’s prequel Furiosa will benefit Mad Max 5, allowing the director to better explore his post-apocalyptic world and further produce stories that can keep the genre relevant for years to come. Miller must have found it difficult to create the story and characters for Mad Max 5.
Edge of Tomorrow, Children of Men, The Road, The Matrix, Stalker, The Day After Tomorrow, and I Am Legend are just a few of the notable movies that explore stories in the wasteland. Miller’s first three films essentially jump-started the post-apocalypse genre. In a similar vein, video game franchises like Fallout and Wasteland have greatly contributed to popularising imagined scenarios of the collapse of human society. Expectations for Miller’s upcoming movie are very high because he is one of the few filmmakers who is recognised for popularising the post-apocalyptic genre.
Additionally, the fact that Tom Hardy hasn’t been cast in Mad Max 5 or even been restrained for discussions about the role adds to the pressure on the fifth film. Even if Miller manages to find a suitable replacement for Hardy, the delay would still result from choosing an actor whose performance would fall short of Hardy’s. With the release of Furiosa, Miller should be better prepared to create the precise environment he desires for Mad Max 5; this, in turn, might persuade Hardy to give this series precedence over others.
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