Mad Max is back after 30 years, and the first photos from filmmaker George Miller’s return to the universe he first created in 1979’s Mad Max offer a peek at the series’ new star, Tom Hardy, who steps into the role made famous by Mel Gibson.
The first official look at Hardy as “Mad” Max Rockatansky graces the cover of the July 4 issue of Entertainment Weekly, but EW.com has debuted the photo along with a batch of additional images from the film and some storyboard art that offer a peek at the post-apocalyptic world Miller and his cast have recreated for the film.
While Hardy’s spin on Mad Max is certainly the focal point of the feature, he’s joined on the cover by Charlize Theron, who plays a one-handed, head-shaved road warrior named Imperator Furiosa. Both Hardy and Theron feature prominently in the new stills, with quite a few shots from a desert car chase — which appears to be the driving (pun totally intended, sorry) element in the film’s narrative, according to Miller.
“I wanted to tell a linear story–a chase that starts as the movie begins and continues for 110 minutes,” Miller told EW. “In this crucible of very intense action, the characters are revealed.”
A new, official synopsis for the film also offers up some clues about the adventure that awaits Mad Max in this long-awaited continuation of the franchise:
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD is the fourth film of George Miller‘s Road Warrior/Mad Max franchise co-written and directed by Miller. The post-apocalyptic action film is set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life.
Within this world of fire and blood exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order… There’s Max (played by TOM HARDY from The Dark Knight Rises), a man of action and a man of few words, who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child in the aftermath of the chaos. And… Furiosa (played by CHARLIZE THERON from Prometheus), a woman of action and a woman who believes her path to survival may be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland.
Mad Max: Fury Road hits theaters May 15, 2015.
[Image via Entertainment Weekly]
