Audiences are gearing up for a return to the Wastelands courtesy of Furiosa, George Miller’s latest chapter in the Mad Max saga. Though this is a prequel to the director’s Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road, there are very few familiar faces in this mythology-rich exploration of familiar territories. Yes, we catch back up with the warrior Furiosa, though Charlize Theron has been replaced by Anya Taylor-Joy for this adventure. And Miller leans heavily into a new leader, Dementus, portrayed by the former Thor superstar Chris Hemsworth. But while filming on Furiosa, Taylor-Joy apparently found solace in one recognizable aspect of Miller’s universe, and that’s the War Boys.
Witness! The War Boys were introduced in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, and are servants and soldiers of Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). We catch back up with Joe in Furiosa, as he strategizes against Dementus in a power struggle in the Wastelands. And Anya Taylor-Joy’s Furiosa finds herself in the middle of the battle. Because she’s thrust into the war between Immortan Joe and Dementus, Furiosa finds herself on the legendary War Rig (which we first saw in Mad Max: Fury Road), and when Taylor-Joy spoke to us about her time spent filming action sequences on the rig, she brought up the War Boys, and the impact they had on her performance.
Anya Taylor-Joy told CinemaBlend:
I remember sitting in it and going, ‘Okay, this is my home . This is my home now.’ Also just, to this day, I find one of the most impactful things for me is the War Boys. Anytime they’re on set, it just, I think – as a fan, as somebody who loves these movies so much, and loves the mythology, it just, it gets me every single time. And that it was pouring with rain, and it wasn’t supposed to be. And we were all like, ‘No!’ But you couldn’t see it on screen. And that’s all that matters.
The War Boys absolutely have a very distinct look about them. They are striking in white and black, against the orange-red backdrop of the arid sand in George Miller’s desert. But it’s the fearlessness of the War Boys (and the stunt artists who portray them) in action sequences like this that are a big part of the reason why fans, and Mad Max cast members, appreciate sharing scenes with them.
George Miller has said, over the years, that the Mad Max movies don’t line up like a traditional series. They don’t connect like upcoming Marvel movies do, and instead operate as individual fables. That doesn’t mean, however, that elements from previous films can’t show up, as the War Boys do in Furiosa. They didn’t help Furiosa that much, according to our official Furiosa review. But that likely won’t stop fans from heading to theaters this opening weekend to see the latest installment in the Mad Max saga.