Charlize Theron not returning for 'Mad Max: Fury Road' Furiosa spin-off

Furiosa, the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, will feature a new, younger actress in the title role, director George Miller has confirmed.

Talking to the New York Times about the long-delayed follow up to 2015’s Oscar-winning Fury Road, Miller says they explored using de-aging CGI technology on 44-year-old Charlize Theron, but decided against it.

“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.”

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It was recently revealed that Miller had met with Emma star Anya Taylor-Joy to potentially take on the role.

The script for Furiosa was written by Miller and co-writer Nick Lathouris before production began on Mad Max: Fury Road, which saw Tom Hardy taking over the lead role of Max Rockatansky from Mel Gibson.

Miller says they fleshed out backstories for all the characters as preparation for the film, but they found Furiosa’s most compelling and ended up writing a full script for her story.

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“I got to read it when I was cast,” Fury Road actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley tells NY Times. “It’s genius. I’ve always wondered if that movie’s going to get made.”

Fury Road saw Theron’s Furiosa leading an audacious attempt to free five women from the clutches of evil warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), by helping them escape in her War Rig. Hardy’s Max gets mixed up in the plan, eventually helping the one-armed Furiosa get the “wives” to safety.

According to the report the prequel is set to centre on a younger Furiosa, in her mid-20s, and will “answer questions about what the character’s life was like in the idyllic ‘Green Place,’ why she was plucked from the group of woman warriors known as the Vuvalini, and how she became the hardened warrior we meet by the time Fury Road begins.”

Miller hopes to shoot Furiosa once he completes work on his new film Three Thousand Years of Longing, which was due to start shooting this spring with Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton.

Mad Max: Fury Road is streaming on Amazon Prime Video from 24 May.