The recent casting changes made by the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa could hint at the movie featuring an Immortan Joe backstory, too. Not a lot is known about the plot of the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa. Anya Taylor-Joy will play Furiosa while Chris Hemsworth is also signed on to play an as-yet-undisclosed role in the movie, but beyond this, the story of the franchise outing remains a mystery.
The Mad Max prequel recently began filming and will not be released until 2024. As a result, it is no surprise that plot details have been kept under wraps for now. Set before the events of Fury Road, the movie looks set to explore the origins of the character previously portrayed by Charlize Theron, before her encounter with Tom Hardy's Max Rockatansky. However, one recent recasting announcement may give away more about the prequel’s plot than it was intended to expose.
The Mank star Tom Burke recently replaced Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in an unnamed Furiosa role, an announcement that might have proved that Mad Max: Fury Road villain Immortan Joe will appear in the prequel. Burke has the right appearance for the role of young Immortan Joe and has proven with numerous indie movie roles that he has the combination of simmering intensity and outspoken charisma that a pre-despot version of the villain would need to win over converts to his death cult. The prequel could explain the Mad Max: Fury Road villain’s backstory, detailing Immortan Joe’s rise to power alongside Furiosa’s path to working with him. The fact that Burke replaced Abdul-Mateen II may have unintentionally given this plot detail away since the indie star looks a lot like a young Hugh Keays-Byrne and has gravitated toward playing morally ambiguous figures in the recent past.
However, this could well be a misdirect, since the fact that Abdul-Mateen II was originally signed up for the role means it might have nothing to do with the Mad Max: Fury Road villain. Not only that, but Chris Hemsworth’s status as a major Hollywood star would make it a massive surprise if he wasn't the one playing a pre-War Boys Immortan Joe, meaning Burke’s resemblance to Keays-Byrne could be intentionally misleading on the part of the filmmakers. There is also always the possibility that neither actor will play a young Immortan Joe in Furiosa, since the Mad Max prequel doesn’t necessarily need to detail the dictator’s story.
After all, the purpose of Mad Max: Fury Road’s Furiosa-centric prequel was to give the movie’s breakout star a story of her own, meaning it would ironic (and arguably misguided) if the movie ended up centering on Immortan Joe instead. Furiosa could instead explain how the apocalypse occurred in the franchise's universe and how Furiosa made it out alive, two things that have never been properly addressed by earlier Mad Max installments. This would mean that Burke’s casting could have nothing to do with Immortan Joe and his role could be entirely unrelated, with the movie’s plot wrapping up long before the titular heroine even encounters the franchise villain. However, the story that Furiosa follows won’t be clear for some time as it is still over a year before the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel finally arrives on screen.