Charlize Theron won’t reprise role of Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road spin-off

Charlize Theron delighted fans with her portrayal of the formidable Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road.

But the Oscar-winning actress won’t be reprising the role in a planned spin-off from director George Miller.

The filmmaker told the New York Times that an upcoming stand-alone Furiosa movie will be centered on a younger version of the character and while he toyed with using de-aging technology on Theron, he’s decided that going down that path wouldn’t really work.

‘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. 

‘Despite the valiant attempts on ‘The Irishman,’ I think there’s still an uncanny valley. Everyone is on the verge of solving it, particular Japanese video-game designers, but there’s still a pretty wide valley, I believe.’

Instead, Miller tells the NY Times he’s begun the process of casting an actress in her 20s in the role after getting the greenlight on the project from Warner Bros.

The Furiosa film is based on a backstory for the character that Miller and Fury Road scribe Nick Lathouris developed for the 2015 action adventure that paired Theron with Tom Hardy as protagonist Max.

The new movie will explore how Furiosa became a hardened warrior. 

Meanwhile, Theron and Hardy recently acknowledged to the NY Times that they had feuded on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road.

‘In retrospect, I didn’t have enough empathy to really, truly understand what [Hardy] must have felt like to step into Mel Gibson’s shoes,’ the South African star said.

For his part, British actor Hardy shared: ‘I think in hindsight, I was in over my head in many ways.’

‘The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced, partner in me,’ he explained. ‘That’s something that can’t be faked. I’d like to think that now that I’m older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion.’