Summary

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is set to be released on May 24, 2024, and serves as a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road.
• The timeline for the Mad Max franchise is complicated; Fury Road takes place around 2050, while Furiosa is set 15 years prior.
• Despite the confusion, George Miller confirms that Furiosa occurs 15 years before Fury Road, focusing on Furiosa's backstory.

Mad Max is an electrifying saga that has spawned four feature films thus far, three of which were released in the 1980s, and the most recent one, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), is considered a soft reboot. Because of this sudden development in the franchise, many fans are unsure where Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will fit into the story's overall structure.

Furiosa, starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, is set to be released on May 24, 2024, which is just on the horizon. With the release date nearing, many Mad Max saga fans are keen on revisiting the franchise, but Furiosa is far from a proper sequel. As a result, fans are bombarding the internet with questions about the film's timeline and whether it serves as a sequel or prequel to the previous installments.

Fear not—despite a 30-year reboot, Furiosa still has its own designated place in the franchise. While it may not have an obvious connection to the original trilogy, it nevertheless fits effectively within Mad Max: Fury Road's timeline. So, without further ado, here's a detailed breakdown of the Mad Max timeline and Furiosa's place amid its convoluted narrative.

Mad Max Timeline Explained: How Each Film Established Connections to Sequels

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a tough nut to crack when it comes to determining its timeframe within the franchise, but Mad Max: Fury Road makes it plausible. As we know, the original Mad Max film, released in 1979, is set in the mid-1980s. It was deciphered from the fact that a piece of graffiti in the movie shows the date December 1984, leading fans to reach the said conclusion. Following Max's vengeance for hunting down the gang members who brutally murdered his wife and child, we've seen what remains of civilization crumble as oil production declines substantially.

Since Mad Max 2: The Road takes place about three years after the previous film, the timeline jumps to the late 1980s. As Max drives his interceptor through the Australian wasteland in search of gasoline, he eventually joins a tribe of good people, but the film emphasizes that the new world belongs to the strong and ruthless. Moving on to the third film in the series, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is set about 15 years after the second film, placing the timeline in the early 2000s. This is evident in the movie when an aircraft crashes near the tribe where Max lives, and Captain Walker leaves the place to seek help in 1999.

Given the film's events, which take place a few years after the incident, experts believe Beyond Thunderdome depicts the events of the post-apocalyptic world in the early 2000s. Thus far, the timeline has been relatively straightforward to grasp, but Mad Max: Fury Road complicates matters significantly because the film takes place around 2050, according to a few references made in the comics. Given that Max is the film's main protagonist, his existence defies logic, but fans have a few theories.

The characters of Max, portrayed by Mel Gibson and Tom Hardy, are vastly different, and the events that happened in Mad Max are regarded as myths by the people who appear in Fury Road. Ultimately, it is established that Mad Max: Fury Road takes place around 2050, but where does Furiosa fall into the timeline?

Furiosa Is Set 15 Years Before Mad Max: Fury Road

It has already been established that Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will serve as a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, following the story of Imperator Furiosa, who appeared alongside Max Rockantansky in the last film. According to Warner Bros, the official premise of Furiosa reads as follows:

As the world falls, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and into the hands of a Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. While the two Tyrants war for dominance over the Citadel, Furiosa survives many trials as she plots a way back home through the Wasteland.

In Mad Max: Fury Road, after arriving in Green Place, which has now become uninhabitable, Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, is recognized by a woman who claims she is one of their own and was kidnapped as a child. The age difference between Anya Taylor-Joy and Charlize Theron is 20 years; hence, assuming Furiosa takes place 15-20 years before Fury Road is the most reasonable option for the timeline.

The trailer states that the events of Furiosa take place 45 years after "the Collapse," which corresponds to the original trilogy when considering Furiosa to take place around 2030. Still, given that it is a direct prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, it's essential to consider how it ties to it. This is where the problem arises, as Mad Max: Fury Road signifies that the world's collapse occurred 33 years ago, as shown by a tattoo on Max's arm.

According to Fury Road, society collapsed in 2013, whereas it actually happened in the mid-1980s in the original trilogy. In fact, George Miller, the creator of the Mad Max saga, has remarked that he is not overly concerned about the timeline because his vision of the new Mad Max productions goes beyond what the newly released comics are attempting to achieve. In addition, he told comicbook.com:

This story happens 15 years directly before Mad Max: Fury Road, and it runs straight into it, and Max is lurking around somewhere in this story, but it's really the story of Furiosa and how she got to be. A lot of the film will be familiar, and a lot of it's new, which we haven't seen before.

In a nutshell, when Mad Max: Fury Road and Furiosa are combined with the original trilogy, the timeline of the entire franchise becomes more confusing, but if we look at them separately, Furiosa should take place about 15 or so years before Mad Max: Fury Road, according to George Miller, and because Furiosa's younger version appears to be 15 years old in the new film. To make things easier, here's a table with the timelines for each movie in the Mad Max saga:

Mad Max: Fury Road is streaming on Apple TV and is available to rent on Google Play. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is heading to theaters on May 24, 2024.