After tremendous success with critics and general audiences, the Mad Max franchise is all set to return to the big screens with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the prequel to 2015’s Fury Road. And, as fans must have already come to know by now, the currently raging Hollywood hotshot Anya Taylor-Joy has replaced Charlize Theron for the iconic titular role of the imperator.
While this decision was previously only accepted by fans because this film would see a younger version of the Furiosa we saw in Fury Road, it feels like Taylor-Joy has not only performed up to the mark but even surpassed many expectations. If anything, fans should brace themselves to be shocked, because Taylor-Joy can make you believe that Theron has returned to the saga!
Anya Taylor-Joy Could Fool You With Her Performance in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Yes, we know that Charlize Theron‘s breathtaking portrayal of Furiosa has connected her so deeply in the role and set the bar so high up that it feels pretty impossible to even entertain the thought that someone else could replace her equally immaculately.
However, it seems that someone else has already replaced her equally impeccably in the role. And, unsurprisingly enough after watching her incredible talent in Dune: Part Two, this someone is none other than the currently raging hotshot in Hollywood, Anya Taylor-Joy.
Despite it being such a challenging job to fill in someone else’s boots who had already set an incredibly high bar with her tremendous performance, The Queen’s Gambit star seems to have proven everyone wrong for worrying about her performance.
The first and best example of this, until now, is the voiceover in the first trailer of the upcoming movie. As fans can notice in the Official Trailer #1 shared by Warner Bros. Pictures on YouTube, the voice calling out to Furiosa perfectly sounds like that of Theron. Surprisingly enough, it isn’t.
During a recent interview with Variety, Taylor-Joy cleared the same while explaining that it’s actually her speaking and not Theron, as she said:
“I was channeling Furiosa’s voice. Gal doesn’t talk much. When she opens her mouth, it’s rusty in there.”
When expressed that she sounded exactly like the Oscar winner who donned the role before her, the Split star’s initial reaction was, “Really?” which was then followed by a “Good!” Continuing, she even said:
“You’re shocked that I’m good?” she huffed. “Acting, darling.”
Well, needless to say, even for acting, this is a brutally epic performance that could leave everyone shell-shocked to know that it isn’t Theron voicing the character, but actually the younger actress who replaced her in the role.
Anya Taylor-Joy Found Furiosa “Traumatizing” to Watch
During the same interview, Anya Taylor-Joy also shared how she still hasn’t seen the final theatrical cut to this prequel to 2015’s Fury Road. At most, she has seen the upcoming movie’s rough cuts quite a few times instead.
Surprising, yes, but there’s a pretty understandable reason why: She finds it traumatizing to watch.
“Within the first three minutes, I’m crying,” she said. “And afterward, I cannot speak. I found it very traumatizing to watch.”
An actress who delves so deeply into her role that she finds it traumatizing to watch her character afterward? Now that’s some true talent and signs of a true actor that many fans of the saga had been wanting to see all along.
Well, good news, because fans can finally witness it all when Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga hits the theatres on the 24th of May, 2024.
