According to Furiosa star Anya Taylor-Joy, the Mad Max spinoff is the bloodiest movie she has ever made, which means the prequel is also likely to be the most violent outing in the series so far. The Mad Max movies are not as gory as viewers might remember. While 1979’s original Mad Max is a surprisingly grim, self-serious drama, its most cringe-inducing moments of violence (the death of Max’s wife and child, and the infamous self-directed hand amputation) happen offscreen. Meanwhile, while its first two sequels boast higher body counts, both The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome have a lighter, more cartoony tone that makes on-screen gore less impactful.
However, Mad Max: Fury Road upped both the body count and the gore quotient of the franchise, and it looks like its prequel Furiosa will soon do the same. Furiosa fills in the Fury Road heroine’s backstory, charting Furiosa’s journey from her childhood in the Green Place of many Mothers to her eventual time in the Citadel working for the amoral warlord Immortan Joe. Co-starring Tom Burke and Chris Hemsworth, Furiosa is set to expand the Mad Max universe when the spinoff arrives in 2024 and, according to its star, the prequel will also up the ante in terms of gore.
Anya Taylor-Joy’s Furiosa Comments Hint It'll Be The Most Violent Mad Max Film
Judging by Taylor-Joy’s claim that Furiosa’s production was the bloodiest movie set she has been on, the project is guaranteed to get fairly gruesome. Per Taylor-Joy, “it’s the dirtiest and the bloodiest I have ever been, which is saying something.” That comment means Furiosa will be nastier than the Giallo-influenced Last Night In Soho, the subversive horror satire The Menu, the bloody period piece The Witch, and the grim epic The Northman. This, combined with Fury Road’s body count, means Furiosa is likely to be comfortably the bloodiest Mad Max movie in the series so far.
The story of Furiosa will most likely need to be more violent than its predecessors in the Mad Max canon since the prequel is guaranteed to have a downbeat ending thanks to the events of Fury Road. The prequel needs to justify why a relatively well-meaning (if tough-as-nails) character like Furiosa ended up working for a monster like Immortan Joe and, as such, Furiosa is guaranteed a sad ending and is likely to kill off a lot of characters on the way there. Earlier Mad Max movies did also include their fair share of bloodshed, but the presence of the titular antihero ensured they had a happier ending and lighter tone than the prequel.
Which Is The Bloodiest Mad Max Movie So Far?
The bloodiest Mad Max movie in the series so far is Fury Road, which boasts an impressive onscreen body count of 75. The next on the rundown is The Road Warrior, where 51 characters die, and then the original Mad Max, with a comparatively paltry 13 onscreen deaths. Finally, the lighter Beyond Thunderdome features only 11 deaths. Whether the fifth Mad Max movie, The Wasteland, will be as brutal as Furiosa remains to be seen. However, for now, it looks like the first Mad Max spinoff will be the goriest outing of the series so far, at least according to Furiosa star Anya Taylor-Joy.