George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road is considered a masterpiece by many, but its journey to the screen was fraught with problems, and the film almost never saw the light of day.
Setting aside the movie's notoriously arduous 9-month shoot once production was underway, Miller had actually been trying to get a fourth Mad Max project off the ground for almost two decades at that point, and one earlier version of what would become Fury Road looked very different to the action spectacle that blew us all away when it hit theaters back in 2015.
Back when Mel Gibson was still attached to reprise the role of Max Rockatansky, the studio wanted Uma Thurman (Kill Bill) to costar as Furiosa. But when pre-production was forced to shut down after 9/11, the project lay dormant for the next 10 years. Once things eventually got back on track, Miller realized that Gibson was too old to play the character, and the search for a new Road Warrior began.
Apparently, a certain Avengers: Endgame actor came pretty close to landing the part.
"I did a chemistry test with Jeremy Renner reading for Max because they hadn’t hired Tom yet,” revealed Zoe Kravitz, who would go on to play one of Immortan Joe's wives in the movie.
Of course, Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron ultimately wound up starring in Fury Road, and the rest is history. It was recently confirmed that Miller is indeed lining up a prequel that will focus on a younger Furiosa before she became one of Imortan Joe's Imperators, but we're still waiting on some official updates.
If you're a Fury Road fan and want to know more about the film's journey to the screen, be sure to check out the full, in-depth feature over at NY Times.
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