When Mad Max: Fury Road premiered in theaters, audiences immediately fell for Charlize Theron's Imperator Furiosa. The hardened warrior served as Fury Road's true protagonist, and there have been talks of a prequel focused entirely on her. However, Theron will not reprise her role as Furiosa.
Speaking to the New York Times, Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller discussed the reason why a different actress will be portraying Furiosa. Part of it has to do with the fact that he feels the de-aging technology currently available is not at the necessary level.
"For the longest time, I thought we could just use CG de-aging on Charlize, but I don’t think we’re nearly there yet," Miller said while discussing the prequel. "Despite the valiant attempts on The Irishman, I think there’s still an uncanny valley. Everyone is on the verge of solving it, particularly Japanese video-game designers, but there’s still a pretty wide valley, I believe.”
Miller does plan to reunite with certain Fury Road crew members for the prequel, including production designer Colin Gibson and cinematographer John Seale. He will begin work on the prequel after his upcoming film Three Thousand Years of Longing, which stars Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton.
Theron's next film is The Old Guard. Directed by Gina Pryce-Bythewood and based on the Image Comics series, the film will feature Theron as the leader of a band of immortal mercenaries. It will begin streaming July 10 on Netflix.