By Savanna Young For Daily Mail Australia
01:43 01 Dec 2023, updated 03:53 01 Dec 2023
Chris Hemsworth appears completely unrecognisable in the first action-packed trailer for George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, Furiosa.
The Australian actor, 40, transformed into villain Dementus with long, shaggy, shoulder-length hair, an overgrown beard and a prosthetic nose.
Friday’s trailer begins with an image of Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) stumbling through the wasteland.
‘Whatever you have to do, however long it takes, promise me you’ll find your way home,’ we hear a woman’s voice say over the image.
‘Furiosa, give me this promise,’ she continues, before we see Taylor-Joy’s dirt-caked face for the first time.
Onscreen titles then tell us that ’45 years after the collapse’ of society, ‘a young Furiosa is taken from her family’.
‘She will devote the rest of her life to finding her way home,’ the words continue.
‘This is her odyssey’ they conclude, before we see a series of action-packed imagery featuring both Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth.
The film tells the origin story of a young Imperator Furiosa, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, who rose to fame as the star of Netflix hit The Queen’s Gambit.
Her character was originally portrayed by Charlize Theron in the 2015 blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road.
The film is a ‘standalone action adventure that will reveal the origins of’ Furiosa.
‘As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus,’ a synopsis reads.
‘Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.’
Hemsworth has described his character Dementus as ‘a very violent, insane, brutal person that is born from the Wasteland.’
‘He has been birthed into a space where it’s kill or be killed. He’s learned to rule with an iron fist. There’s a charisma to him and it’s a very manipulative charisma,’ he said at CCXP in Brazil, where the trailer footage was unveiled.
Furiosa was filmed in New South Wales and was expected to become the biggest movie ever to be made in Australia. Filming wrapped up in September, 2022.
Franchise creator Miller is also back as director and co-writer of Furiosa, alongside Nico Lathouris, as well as his long-time producing partner Doug Mitchell.
Miller has described the prequel as ‘a saga’ that will be told over a 15-year period, which is much different from Fury Road, which spanned three days in its timeframe.
Meanwhile, a development application (DA) to the Sutherland Shire Council indicates that filming in Kurnell is expected to last until October.
Last year, former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the highly anticipated Mad Max prequel would be filmed locally.
Berejiklian said it would be the ‘largest film ever to be filmed here’, creating 850 jobs and injecting at least $350million into the local economy.
She went on to praise the movie’s cast and crew, and said the production would ‘showcase Australian talent at its best’.
‘Chris, who’s made Australia his home, he’s a global superstar and works here in NSW, and I couldn’t feel prouder about him and his generation of actors that are really continuing to put Australia on the map,’ she said.
Mad Max Furiosa is scheduled for release in May 2024.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
