Anya Taylor-Joy takes over Charlize Theron’s titular role in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, but does the prequel film tease future installments in the saga?

When it comes to iconic action franchises, few can stand as tall as the Mad Max movies. In the 1970s and 1980s, actor Mel Gibson brought Max to life in three movies, with Tom Hardy taking over the role in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Notably, that film led to the rise of Charlize Theron’s Furiosa.

In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, director George Miller depicts Furiosa’s backstory and how she came to be enslaved by Immortan Joe. Miller himself has said that he has many stories left to tell after this. It has left fans who haven’t been to theaters yet wondering if there is a post-credits scene that hints at what the expansion could be.

What Is Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga About?

Furiosa finds Anna Taylor-Joy as the younger Furiosa. Fury Road had her older, rugged and outrunning Joe on the War Rig with Joe’s wives. No one knew how she became this rebel with one hand. In her prequel film, fans see Furiosa becoming a prisoner of another toxic man in the Australian Wasteland before meeting Joe: Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus. He kills Furiosa’s mother, Mary, takes the child prisoner, and tries to force her to be the child that he lost. It’s a bit sympathetic at first, but the tragedy over how he pushes Furiosa into being his “pet” ensures viewers see him as nothing less than a brutal monster.

Of course, this barrels into Furiosa working with Joe and his crew at the Citadel, a rocky fortress seen in Fury Road. Clearly, Furiosa is stuck in between a rock and a hard place. There are dictators on either side who use women as pawns, breeding stock or objects in their thirst for power. Dementus wants to conquer, Joe wants to consolidate, while Furiosa wonders if she’ll ever regain her agency, identity and control in a world that lacks love and empathy. She needs to be free to make it back to her lush home where there’s food and water: the Green Place.

As Taylor-Joy has said in interviews, her Furiosa won’t cry or mope. Her Furiosa is all about feminine rage in a dusty landscape rife with misogynists. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to know where this prelude ends. Furiosa wins the war against Dementus and becomes an Imperator, driving Joe’s War Rig. Fury Road’s opening alludes to as much, with the military general betraying Joe, stealing his wives and trying to liberate them so they don’t have to suffer in a rocky world of servitude and oppression. Furiosa’s job is to show what’s the tipping point that fractures the titular character and Joe at the Citadel of subjugation.

Furiosa Has a Mad Max: Fury Road Montage In the Credits

Furiosa does have a mid-credits sequence, with a twist. Once Furiosa wraps and shows a new mission (hurting Joe), there are many scenes splintered into the credits. Fans see cut scenes from Fury Road, showcasing Miller’s evil War Boys, Joe giving chase with his legion, and all the bombastic explosions that occur. The scenes include Hardy’s Max helping out Furiosa.

There is also Nicholas Hoult’s Nux, the War Boy who wanted Max’s blood, and to please Joe. Through all these scenes, fans can stitch together one giant narrative at play. It’s a very clever way of using the mid-credits. This montage helps to complete the story rather than set something up. With most movies, the future and follow-ups are usually built with these stingers. Superhero movies and TV are known for them, with the trend restarted thanks to 2008’s Iron Man.

Since then, Marvel Studios, Warner Bros., Fox and Sony kept building comic book adaptations using them. Mainstream Hollywood followed suit, with many popcorn movies and shows using post-credits, too. Miller, however, sticks to his artistic vision. He engages in the fad, but it’s tastefully done to complete his explosive tapestry. He wants audiences who didn’t see Fury Road to understand how this prequel gives Furiosa a higher calling and shows that her trek is only just beginning.

Sure, she has come from a realm of strife and discord, and feels as if she’s indebted to Joe. But that truce is temporary. All she is doing is waiting for the right time to strike and break free with the concubines. Thus, these sequences reiterate how clever Miller is as a visual artist and storytelling. He prefers his work to be functional, whether it be Happy Feet, the Mad Max films, the Babe movies, or Three Thousand Years of Longing. He wastes no second on the film reel, which helps fans who may have forgotten Fury Road’s intricacies and deep cuts.

Furiosa’s Post-Credits Reveals Nux’s Bobble Head

At the end, Furiosa also has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it post-credits scene. So much so, some might think it’s negligible, but it’s not. This final frame quickly shows Nux’s bird skeleton bobblehead on the dashboard of his vehicle. Diehards would remember this from when he pursued the rig in Fury Road to stop Max and Furiosa. Nux turned good by sacrificing his life after forsaking the War Boy mentality. He finally came to understand love and family, which led to him dying as he took out some of Joe’s caravan, including Joe’s son, Rictus.

As for why Miller would pay tribute to Nux, there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, Max himself is about second chances. He lost his loved ones and had to work on not becoming a monster on his revenge-filled journeys. Nux found the light, albeit under different circumstances. It follows a theme: never give up hope or lose humanity. Furiosa learned this as well, spiritually connecting them all in the Mad Max universe. The movie has her losing her map to the Green Place, but she remains inspired to take the wives there.

Secondly, Miller knows there is a lot to tell in the year before Fury Road. Furiosa is one story, but he has said he doesn’t mind detailing what happened to Max and how he ended up as Nux’s blood slave. If Nux gets a prequel, Miller can explore his terminal illness, how he captured Max, why he became a War Boy in the first place, and what seeds were planted for redemption down the road. Hoult is on his way to becoming an A-lister, as Hoult will play Lex Luthor in Warner Bros. Discovery’s next Superman movie from James Gunn.

Lastly, Mad Max is a WB property. Therefore, there is potential for Miller to tell more about what linked Max and Nux. Furiosa does set this up in the final act by having a Mad Max cameo. Max is lurking around, so it would all feel natural and connect these key figures again, informing and providing apt context for Fury Road. Fans liked Nux, as well as the nuance and conflict within, so maybe that trinket on the car is foreshadowing Nux’s historical journey in this unpredictable desert.

Furiosa is now playing in theaters.