Every Actor Who Almost Played Mad Max In Fury Road

It’s hard to see anyone but Tom Hardy as Fury Road’s antihero Mad Max, but George Miller’s franchise considered other high-profile stars before him.

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It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Tom Hardy playing Fury Road’s near-mute antihero Mad Max, but director George Miller’s franchise considered a lot of high-profile stars before settling on him. Released in 1979, the original Mad Max catapulted star Mel Gibson to global fame and led to the actor’s illustrious onscreen career, which Gibson later traded in for a stint behind the camera after some decades spent in the limelight. That said, the recent likes of Dragged Across Concrete or Fatman suggest an acting comeback may be in the works for the aging actor.

However, although the ongoing Mad Max series gave Gibson a role as iconic as his later Lethal Weapon character Martin Riggs, after the third movie in the series the actor had to admit he was (again, like his Lethal Weapon character) getting too old to continue in the title role of Miller’s propulsive action series. Although the Mad Max movies began life as a sparse and realistic revenge thriller – which ironically was intended to highlight the very human cost of dangerous driving – by the first sequel The Road Warrior the series was set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and had become more action-packed and fast-paced genre fare.

When production was gearing up on Mad Max 4 in the 2000s, Miller became aware he had to replace the older (and increasingly controversial) Gibson with a star better suited to the physical demands of playing Max. However, throughout the lengthy, tortured production process of Fury Road, it was never clear who would take on the eponymous part for Mad Max’s fourth outing. Gibson brought toughness and a quiet charm that few action stars could boast, with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean Claude Van Damme being too burly or the more relatable likes of Bruce Willis or Matt Damon being too focused on everyman roles to take on a sci-fi series with a hero so crazy his name hints at his instability. Eventually, the creators found the perfect replacement in Tom Hardy, whose screen history combined blockbusters with more intimate indie efforts. But before settling on the Dark Knight Rises actor, the producers picked through a slew of notable names, some of whom nearly nabbed the role from under Hardy’s nose.

Jeremy Renner

The replacement Jason Bourne/arguably most expendable Avenger Jeremy Renner came very close to securing the role of Mad Max before the creators opted for Hardy. Renner actively pushed to get the title role in Fury Road and was even being considered for screen tests before Miller went with the more idiosyncratic Hardy. Renner did have an impressive history playing tough action hero types, but his commitment to the then-ongoing Avengers franchise – as well as the ever-expanding MCU – most likely played into the producer’s eventual decision to go another direction. However, even though Renner’s tenure as Mad Max wasn’t meant to be, the actor did get so close that Zoe Kravitz later admitted she did a chemistry test with him before Hardy was cast. It’s odd to try imagining the more outwardly harsh, less quirky actor playing Max, but Renner does undeniably have the simmering intensity Gibson brought to his stoic debut in the role before the broader, campier elements of the Mad Max franchise started to appear in later entries.

Channing Tatum

Around the time that the comedic actor and action movie stalwart was earning kudos for his turns in the likes of Foxcatcher and Magic Mike, Channing Tatum was also in the running to play Max. The easy charm he brought to the action-comedy outings of the 21 Jump Street series may have made Tatum an obvious choice for Fury Road’s Mad Max. However, although the actor’s physicality is perfect for the part, his central role in 2015’s sci-fi action flop Jupiter Ascending likely left the Mad Max creators heaving a sigh of relief they opted for Tom Hardy. Jupiter Ascending proved that Tatum would struggle to sell the central role in a potentially silly sci-fi movie – even if said film boasted creators like the iconic Wachowski sisters of The Matrix franchise fame. Even before that flop, though, the critical failure of The Eagle had already proven Tatum’s strengths didn’t lie in desert-set action so far as reviewers were concerned, making the decision easier for Mad Max’s creators.

Heath Ledger

Before his untimely death, Heath Ledger was considered for the role of Mad Max, which gives an idea of how long Fury Road spent in development hell. It’s impossible to know how much of the movie that viewers ended up seeing in 2015 was finalized when Ledger was considered for the part pre-2008, so his Mad Max may have ended up very different had the actor played the role. What is clear is that, between blockbuster roles like A Knight’s Tale or The Dark Knight and the more subtle character work seen in Brokeback Mountain, Ledger would have been a perfect fit for the character. Tragically, he was unable to take on the part, although it is notable that after he passed a later Nolan Batman villain got the opportunity to make Max his own.

Michael Biehn

As reported by Ain’t It Cool News way back in 1997 (when it was one of the only movie gossip sites on the Internet), Aliens star Biehn was apparently considered for the role of Mad Max almost two decades before Fury Road came together. Biehn cut his teeth in The Terminator, a similarly sparse, low-budget sci-fi thriller that spawned a bigger franchise, and the actor was something of a muse for sci-fi maestro James Cameron. A sci-fi cinema staple who appeared in everything from Cameron’s output to 2007’s Grindhouse, Biehn would have been a perfect fit for Max, although at 64 he’s scarcely younger than original star Gibson. As such, there was a very short window wherein Biehn’s theoretical function as a “younger” replacement would have made sense, so director George Miller opted to go for a far younger actor (with Hardy being over two decades Gibson’s junior), allowing further Mad Max installments to keep the same cast without running into the aging issue again.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/mad-max-fury-road-actors-almost-cast/