Mel Gibson was once the face of the Mad Max franchise, but in Mad Max: Fury Road, he was replaced by Tom Hardy, and some fans may have wondered why. One of Mel Gibson's earliest and most iconic characters was Max Rockatansky, the titular hero from the Mad Max franchise. Gibson first started playing Max in the series' first film, in 1979. He would go on to play Max twice more, in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. For decades, Gibson was the face of Max, but it all changed in 2015.
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When Fury Road was released, Tom Hardy became the second actor to play Max Rockatansky. That decision came as a bit of a surprise to Mad Max fans at the time, and it can still be a bit jarring to see Max's face change completely between Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road. Though it was a fairly significant change, the Mad Max franchise never directly addressed it, and simply carried on as if Max had always looked the same. Behind the scenes, however, there were a few reasons why Mel Gibson didn't play Max in Fury Road.
By The Time Fury Road Happened, Mel Gibson Was No Longer Miller’s Actor For The Role
The simplest reason Mel Gibson didn't reprise the role of Max Rockatansky in Fury Road is because director George Miller didn't want him to. Miller told the New York Post that there were two reasons he didn't want Gibson anymore: Gibson was controversial, and Fury Road wasn't about Max at an older age.
“By the time we got there, not only had Mel hit all the turbulence in his life, but this is not a ‘Mad Max’ in which he’s an old warrior. He’s meant to be that same contemporary warrior. I guess in the same way that James Bond had been played by various people, it was time to hand over the mantle.”
The "turbulence" in Gibson's life that Miller referred to was a string of controversies up to 2010. Due to several controversies, at the time, no one wanted Gibson to be the lead actor in their movie, including George Miller. In addition to that, however, Miller also said that he wanted a younger person to "hand over the mantle" of Max to, likely because Max is supposed to be a legendary figure more than a realistic one.
George Miller Still Has No Plans For Another Mel Gibson-Led Mad Max Movie
Mel Gibson has somewhat recovered from his controversies and made his return to both acting and directing, but he likely won't ever be in another Mad Max movie. George Miller said that he has no plans to tell a story about Max in his old age, which would preclude Mel Gibson, who is in his late 60s, from taking on the role.
“There’s no story that I have that has an older character, like, y’know, a Harrison Ford, or so on. It’s not... it happened even on Fury Road. At a certain point, it’s not like an Unforgiven, or one of those movies, where it’s really an old, burnt out person coming back one more time. It’s very much... I mean, there probably are stories to tell...
I don’t know what happens to Max when he gets into his 60s, or something like that. I haven’t even thought of that. I’m much more thinking of the characters around the time, about 40 or 50 years after the whole, sort of, collapse of society.”
On top of Gibson's age, there's another reason he likely won't ever play Max again: there might not be another Mad Max film. After Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga's disappointing box office earnings, the odds that Miller will get to continue the franchise seem especially slim due to financial concerns. Additionally, there is no news about the planned sequel Mad Max: The Wasteland, and now that Tom Hardy is approaching 50, he would also have to be recast. Even if there is a sequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, Mel Gibson has almost surely already had his final moment as Max Rockatansky.
Sources: New York Post, Variety
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Mad Max: Fury Road
R
Action
Adventure
Thriller
Fantasy
Mad Max: Fury Road is the fourth film in George Miller's long-running sci-fi franchise, with Tom Hardy starring as Max Rockstansky, a vagabond who lives on the road in an apocalyptic wasteland. When Max comes across a cult group that keeps its people in fear and under control with a monopoly on water and other crucial supplies, he joins up with Imperator Furiosa, a warrior woman leading a rebellion against the cult's leader, Immortan Joe.
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*Availability in US
- Director
- George Miller
- Release Date
- May 14, 2015
- Studio(s)
- Village Roadshow Pictures , RatPac-Dune Entertainment , Kennedy Miller Mitchell
- Distributor(s)
- Warner Bros. Pictures
- Writers
- George Miller , Brendan McCarthy , Nick Lathouris
- Cast
- Tom Hardy , Charlize Theron , Nicholas Hoult , Zoe Kravitz , Hugh Keays-Byrne , Riley Keough , Courtney Eaton , Abbey Lee , Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
- Runtime
- 120 Minutes
- Franchise(s)
- Mad Max
- Sequel(s)
- Mad Max: The Wasteland
- prequel(s)
- Mad Max , Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior , Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome , Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
- Budget
- $154-185 Million
