Tom Hardy Responds To Rumors He'll Star In A 'Mad Max' Prequel

Contracts for actors signing on to big franchises have gotten more extensive. They aren’t signing on for one movie. No, these actors are signing up to potentially play the same character for years. There will be other films they appear in. Sequels, television shows, and theme park likeness rights are all on the table. That doesn’t even cover all of that sweet merchandise. Of course, none of this matters if their first outing is a hot, sweaty bomb.

We’ve seen plenty of franchise kickoff films that end up dead on arrival. Someone can spend months on end promoting their big tentpole movie and never play the character again. Then there’s Morbious, where Jared Leto was forced upon us, made fun of and then forced upon us again. Then there are prequels, where anything is on the table.

Prequels allow franchises to start over without actually starting over. They can introduce new characters that have a connection to the ones we know. Events only referenced before can be shown in “real-time.” It also allows for recasting. Ewan McGregor replaced Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Tom Blyth took over the role of Coriolanus Snow from Donald Sutherland in the Hunger Games franchise. More recently, Charlize Theron was replaced by Anya Taylor Joy in the Furiosa.

With the release of Furiosa, people have wondered if we will see more of Tom Hardy’s take on Mad Max. Without getting into what happens in the film, it would be very possible for Hardy to return. If he did, it would likely happen almost a decade after he made the first film. Hiring an older actor to play a younger version of themselves doesn’t make a lot of sense and would likely stand in the way of a return. Also standing in the way is Hardy’s … lack of enthusiasm.

When asked by Forbes if he would return to the saga to work with Miller, Hardy gave a pretty blunt answer. “I don’t think that’s happening,” Hardy told the outlet. It seems that even if Hardy had signed on for multiple films, he wouldn’t be returning to the desert lands. Maybe he’ll change his mind after Venom 3 comes out. For now, he’s hanging up his leather jacket.