Even before George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road" was released this year, the director has already been working on the film's sequel and spinning ideas on his head on how to push the franchise even further.
There are certain things that are pretty clear for Miller - lead star Tom Hardy will be back to reprise his role as Max, and the title will not be called "Wasteland," as previously reported.
"The more I speculate about what's happening, the more I try to avoid spoilers this far out, and also I find myself talking around in circles. So the best thing I can say is that we're definitely in discussion about making more of these, but the timing of it, I'm really not sure. Probably won't be called 'Wasteland.' I can say that. It was just the working title we gave it," he revealed during an interview with Deadline.
Miller is also certain that the original Max, who is Mel Gibson will not be part of the future "Mad Max" films.
"Not in these movies, for a very simple reason. If Mel, who is Max in a lot of people's memories, appeared in the next movie, it would pull audiences out of the movie for a bit, and we worked so hard to keep people immersed in the movie as much as possible," he explained. "It would be like, I don't know, seeing Roger Moore appearing in a Daniel Craig 'James Bond' movie. It would be fun, but it would also pull you out of the experience of the movie."
The appearance of Charlize Theron's Furiosa in the upcoming films is a thing of uncertainty for Miller though. The character made such a huge impact on "Fury Road," and Miller is thrilled that people celebrated her strong presence.
"I'm happy that people picked up on that, but it was much more character driven. Here was a character who was really interesting, and now comes an actor in Charlize Theron who really responds to it. I'm very pleased about how the character's been received and what happened," he said.
Miller is pretty optimistic about the franchise's future. He does not like to dwell on any awards buzz for "Fury Road" and simply push through working on the next few films.
"I'm seriously just happy that we've been able to make a halfway decent movie, and to try to sort of anticipate what happens there," he said.
