Guess What? Miller Will Be Making Those "Mad Max" Sequels After All

Scene from Mad Max: Fury Road

Today's a big day for director George Miller. For starters, his film Mad Max: Fury Road has the second most Oscar nominations. Considering how little it has in the way of prestigious fare like Spotlight or Brooklyn, it's a miracle and a surprise that his action film has managed to outdo them. Of course, this film has been doing surprisingly well against both critics and audiences, and even puts the future of Miller's crazy car franchise up for question. Will we be seeing more of Max and the gang in future films? Well, the answer looked to be a resounding no a few days ago. But today, in light of his second wave of success, the 70-year-old director clears things up. Turns out that he may be coming back after all.

As a respectable writer, my goal is to give thorough and factual news. I am aware that it looks suspect that a mere two days after printing a story regarding contrarian opinions, I am back with the opposing viewpoint. However, I'd like to think that I cited my sources properly enough in the former piece to keep this from seeming like a problematic issue. As it stands, many respectable outlets fell for this false information, too. It wasn't something banal and silly like The Drudge Report's false opinions on The Revenant. Hopefully this piece is the extent to which this "Will he? Won't he?" story will go for at least the near future.

So, if Miller said no, why is he suddenly saying yes to potential Mad Max sequels? The fact of the matter is that the news itself was reported wrong. While it is true that he reported on the films taking a long time to get made, the context by which they were said is misconstrued. While it could be a faulty reporter, one could merely blame the environment: the red carpet by which the interview happened. In a recent statement for The Wrap, he claimed that:

"That was a completely garbled interview. I was in New York and it was so noisy and the journalist was asking me questions on a red carpet at the National Board of Review. She completely got the wrong fragments of information that were just not true. I said no, [another Mad Max movie] will not be next, and she took that to mean I never wanted to make another Mad Max. It won’t necessarily be next, but I have two more stories."

This is both good news and logical news, especially if you've followed the Mad Max franchise's future since early last year. Tom Hardy's gone so far as to publicly state that he'll be starring in sequels. The fifth entry even has a name already: Mad Max:: The Wasteland. Miller's even expressed interest in doing a film about his supporting character Furiosa; of whom took the show away from Max and turned quickly into an icon. While the original statement still feels contradictory, it's a relief to know that a man who has passionately been involved with Mad Max for four decades will not be leaving it any time soon. That is, unless there's yet another misprint, but let's hope not.

So while it will be awhile until we next see Max driving around, there's some hope that things will continue to be crazy and wild. This does raise question as to what Miller plans to do next. Speaking as he's always jumped back and forth, there's confidence that he'll come back when the project looks closer to completion. Until that happens, one can only enjoy the fact that Mad Max: Fury Road has become an unprecedented Oscar leader in ways that sci-fi action films (not made by James Cameron) usually aren't. That alone has made this year's Oscar season far more interesting and exciting than the past few years combined.