Mad Max: The Wasteland has been in talks for a number of years now. George Miller‘s initial revival of his own popular dystopian franchise came in 2015 with the Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road. Although it didn’t win Best Picture, it defied expectations by receiving a nomination, a rare feat for an action movie.
Miller then followed up with spinoff movie, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, in 2024. Although this entry landed well with audiences and critics, many were still begging for another Mad Max movie with Tom Hardy, who was absent from Furiosa. So, after all these years, is Mad Max: The Wasteland still happening? Here’s everything we know.
Is Mad Max: The Wasteland Green Lit?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOpMJAhrTJs
Tom Hardy is one of Hollywood’s most varied actors, and has traversed an array of genres throughout his career. However, his work in the action realm is rather limited. So, when he starred in Netflix’s adrenaline-filled Havoc in 2025, questions started flying his way about the potential for another Mad Max movie. When speaking with BroBible to promote Havoc, Hardy was asked whether seeing Furiosa sparked an itch to make another Mad Max flick with George Miller. Hardy said he’d “love to do it” and called his time filming Fury Road one of the best experience of his career. Elsewhere, in a separate interview, he was cheekily prodded about his next project and quizzed if it would be filmed in Australia (where Fury Road was filmed). Yet, the Oscar-nominee, with his publicist by his side, gave nothing away.
What’s perplexing about Mad Max: The Wasteland is the fact that it is listed as in pre-production on IMDb. Yet, Tom Hardy is the only actor attached. So, it could be that he is under contractual obligations to not discuss the movie for the time being. In fact, in 2024, he even stated that he didn’t think the movie will be happening at all. After Furiosa flopped at the box office, only grossing $174.3 million worldwide against a budget of $168 million, Hardy was quizzed by Forbes about Mad Max: The Wasteland. He simply said “I don’t think that’s happening.” In terms of the project definitely going ahead, despite Miller’s keen interest to keep his franchise moving, as of writing, a green light for production has yet to materialize.
What Is the Plot of the Movie?
Although Mad Max: The Wasteland seems to be trapped in limbo, George Miller has confirmed that he has completed the script. While finer plot details are sparse, what is known is that the film takes place a year before the events of Fury Road, making it a prequel just like Furiosa. In 2015, Miller revealed that he and long-time collaborator Nick Lathouris had scribed what was “basically a novella” about Max’s travels in the Wasteland in the year preceding his capture by Immortan Joe’s forces at the beginning of Fury Road. He also divulged that that they would adapt this novella into a screenplay, envisioning the movie as a character-based story, although there would still be plenty of action at play. However, plans may have now shifted since Furiosa (which was also very character-based), struggled at the box office.
What’s Next for Tom Hardy and George Miller?
Whether Mad Max: The Wasteland makes it to the screen or not, Tom Hardy has a full plate in terms of other projects. Hardy is enjoying the success of MobLand, a crime series in which he shares the screen with Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren. The show is so popular that there is already talks for a sequel. And despite a severe bashing from critics, Havoc garnered 29.8 million views and 53.1 million hours viewed in its first week on Netflix, indicating strong audience viewership and another career boost for Hardy. He is also rumored to be reprising his role as Alfie Solomons in the Peaky Blinders spinoff movie, The Immortal Man.
As for Miller, things are somewhat quiet currently, with no future projects outside of Mad Max: The Wasteland known of. However, it could be that he is still chipping away at the project behind the scenes. After all, he is no stranger to projects being delayed. His Tilda Swinton-led epic Three Thousand Years of Longing was initially announced in 2018 but wasn’t released until 2022 after filming was halted during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, perhaps there’s still hope yet.
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