After months of speculation, the official plot synopsis for Mad Max: Fury Road's prequel Furiosa had finally arrived, and the short run-down brings with it a whole host of potential plot problems. From recasting the title character to changing its shooting location at the last second, 2015's hit Mad Max: Fury Road had a messy, complex, and lengthy production process. However, not only was the much-delayed sequel eventually worth the wait upon its arrival, but Mad Max: Fury Road exceeded expectations and became one of the new millennium's most acclaimed action movies.
As such, the news that Mad Max: Fury Road's much-hyped prequel Furiosa has a questionable synopsis may not unduly worry franchise fans. During the earlier sequel's production, Mad Max was almost played by Eminem, and the movie was nearly outright canceled days before shooting, so there is no reason to think that Furiosa is doomed solely because of its plot choices. However, the first official news about the Mad Max prequel's plot is still worrying regardless.
Since the prequel was first announced, Furiosa has been seen as a golden opportunity for the Mad Max franchise to finally reveal how the world ended in the universe of the iconic sci-fi franchise. While each Mad Max movie hinted at an explanation for the breakdown of human civilization, these reasons range from nuclear war to environmental catastrophe. However, since director George Miller's original 1979 hit Mad Max (which takes place shortly before the in-universe apocalypse), the series has not returned to the end of the world and explained how it happened. As a prequel, Furiosa seemed primed to address this question. However, the official plot synopsis for Furiosa was released in June 2022, and the brief summary implies that the movie will still not explain how the apocalypse happened in the Mad Max franchise - while also relying on an old villain instead of a new antagonist.
Furiosa's Official Synopsis
Furiosa began shooting in Broken Hill earlier in 2022, with a cast that includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Tom Burke, and Chris Hemsworth. Returning the movie's production to Australia fixed a Mad Max: Fury Road mistake as it gave the series back its unique look, but the movie's official synopsis is not as reassuring. The Furiosa synopsis reads as follows:
"As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home."
Furiosa Won't Necessarily Explain Mad Max's Apocalypse
While Furiosa's brief synopsis talks about the world falling, it's important to note that Mad Max: Fury Road's Vuvalini, Green Place of Many Mothers, and Biker Horde exist whenever this prequel's action takes place. This implies that the story will occur around the same time as either Beyond Thunderdome or The Road Warrior, but certainly not back as far as the time of the original Mad Max. Since both the Vuvalini and the Biker Hordes are post-apocalyptic societies that came into existence in the years after the Mad Max universe's apocalypse, this means that Furiosa is unlikely to finally show what ended civilization in the world of Mad Max. Instead, Furiosa's story will seemingly begin after the unseen incident, leaving the question of how the world ended in the Mad Max universe still unanswered.
Furiosa's Prequel Ending Is Predetermined
The problems with Furiosa's synopsis don't end with the period during which the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel is set. Furiosa's story was also intended to depict the character's life before she ended up in the employ of the evil warlord Immortan Joe, fleshing out a character whose story has until now been defined by brutal trauma but little else. However, by including Immortan Joe in a movie intended to center around its heroine, the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel risks overshadowing Furiosa's origin story in favor of spelling out a lot of plot that viewers could already glean from the earlier sequel. While Furiosa's rightly-hated comic backstory made Immortan Joe's ritualized assault of his many wives gratuitously explicit, most viewers watching Mad Max: Fury Road could ascertain from the movie's sparse, efficient storytelling that Furiosa didn't want to work for her grotesque employer but had few other options available to her in the dusty wasteland of the Citadel.
As a result, the problem with bringing Immortan Joe into Furiosa's prequel story is that the movie now has a predetermined ending. Its titular heroine has to end up working for Immortan Joe and thus can't return to the Green Place of Many Mothers, depriving the story of its stakes. It is already clear that Furiosa will end up failing to overpower Immortan Joe and his zealous followers, the chrome-huffing War Boys. This, in turn, means that the prequel's story could be disappointingly easy to predict.
Can Furiosa Still Surprise Mad Max Franchise Fans?
Immortan Joe was a memorably great villain because he was a fresh new face for the Mad Max franchise, and a younger version of him won't have the same impact as his Fury Road debut. However, depicting Furiosa's downfall could still allow the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel to shock audiences. The younger Immortan Joe could well be less monstrous than the members of the Biker Horde, and the prequel could mine a lot of dramatic irony from Furiosa teaming up with a younger, less evil version of the character that will eventually become a cruel despot.
The Road Warrior's earliest drafts included a jettisoned twist wherein Mad Max's heroic partner Goose was revealed to be the villainous Lord Humungus, having given up on his hopes of stopping crime after a brutally violent run-in with a murderous biker gang. Mad Max: Fury Road's prequel Furisoa could explore this idea and deepen both Furiosa and Immortan Joe's characters by showing that neither of them was born morally corrupted, but both were shaped by the brutal post-apocalyptic environment that they were forced to survive. However, whether the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel can pull this off or not won't become clear until Furiosa arrives in 2024.
