Will Tom Hardy Join ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Prequel?

Tom Hardy is in talks to star in a Mad Max: Fury Road prequel. The 39-year-old actor appeared as the titular character in George Miller’s blockbuster last year, and the director is said to be returning to write and helm the forthcoming film.

According to Australia’s Herald Sun, the prequel will be filmed in and around Broken Hill, a mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. Some of the action movie is set to be shot at New South Wales’ Broken Hill Studios, and filming could start as soon as the end of the year.

Despite being shot in 2012, Mad Max: Fury Road – which starred Charlize Theron as Furiosa – didn’t reach the big screen until 2015.

The prequel is to focus on Furiosa’s backstory.

Mad Max: Fury Road was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2015 and took home six gongs for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

It’s not yet known if Theron is to join the prequel, but she admitted she “struggled” to warm to Hardy during the filming of Mad Max.

She previously said: “Maybe the movie is what it is because we struggled so much with each other, and those characters had to struggle so much with each other. If we were chum-chum, maybe the movie would have been 10 times worse.”