Back in 2015, a few years after he starred in major movies like Inception, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Dark Knight Rises, Tom Hardy took over the role of Max Rockatansky, previously played by Mel Gibson, in Mad Max: Fury Road. This installment in the George Miller-helmed franchise ranks as one of Hardy’s must-watch movies, and nearly a decade after its release, a prequel/spinoff called Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, with Anya Taylor-Joy playing the younger version of the title character whom Charlize Theron first portrayed. While Hardy hasn’t seen this 2024 movie release yet, he nonetheless had some kind words to say about the latest Mad Max movie.
Tom Hardy is currently making the press rounds for his new movie The Bikeriders, which sees him and Austin Butler playing members of a motorcycle gang, as shown in the trailer. While speaking with Variety about his latest cinematic project, the actor mentioned while he still hadn’t seen Furiosa at the time the interview was conducted, he’s confident that the final product turned out well, saying:
I’m sure that Furiosa will be a tremendous success, as rightly George, Anya and Chris well deserve. I’m a huge Mad Max fan, and Fury Road fan and Furiosa fan. I haven’t seen the film, but I know it’s bound to be special because it’s come from George.
Judging from this comment, it doesn’t sound like Tom Hardy doesn’t have any interest in seeing Furiosa. Otherwise, why would be so complimentary about it? My guess is he just wasn’t able to stop by the theater to see it, but since he’s a fan of George Miller, Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth (who plays Warlord Dementus), maybe he’ll carve out some time in his schedule to view the spinoff with a Max subscription once it hits the streaming service.
Hardy is correct that Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was a “tremendous success,” at least on the critical side of things. Initially, opinions on the movie were all over the place, with our own Mike Reyes among its detractors, giving it 2 out of 5 stars in CinemaBlend’s Furiosa review. However, now the movie has a 90% Tomatoemeter on Rotten Tomatoes and an 89% Audience Score.
Conversely though, Furiosa failed to impress commercially, making only a little over $160 million worldwide off a reported budget of $168 million. As such, it will go down as a box office bomb, which subsequently calls into question what the future of the Mad Max franchise holds in store. George Miller has talked about developing The Wasteland, another Mad Max: Fury Road prequel following Max Rockatansky before the events of the 2015 movie, but Furiosa’s performance could result in Warner Bros. Pictures not wanting to move forward with the project.
In any case, if/when the day comes that Tom Hardy shares what he thought about Furiosa after seeing it, we’ll pass that along. The Bikeriders opens in theaters this Friday, June 21, and Hardy’s next movie, Venom: The Last Dance, follows on October 25.