Furiosa Will Skip One Aspect of the Charlize Theron Version of the Mad Max Character

George Miller knows a thing or two about iconic looks. After all, the Australian filmmaker defined the post-apocalypse on the big screen with his 1979 movie Mad Max and even more so with his 1981 follow-up The Road Warrior. The ragged black leather aesthetic continues to be shorthand for a bleak future, even today. (Just look at the upcoming Fallout TV series.)

Miller added to his repertoire of amazing looks with 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Charlize Theron’s scene-stealing Furiosa drew attention from Tom Hardy’s Max, with her mechanical arm, her greasepainted brow, and her shaved head. For the prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Anya Taylor-Joy takes over Theron’s rig as a younger version of the Imperator, this time forced into the service of the Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth).

Taylor-Joy may be playing a younger Furiosa, but she’s outfitted like Theron, complete with robot arm and grease paint. But there is one thing missing from Taylor-Joy’s version: the buzz cut.

Speaking to Empire, Taylor-Joy revealed that it was Miller who nixed the hairdo for the prequel. “I was so excited to shave my head,” she said. “Then George saw me in real life, and went, ‘No, we can’t!’” According to the Empire article, it was the movie’s shooting schedule that prevented Taylor-Joy from committing to such an extreme hairstyle.

Part of Taylor-Joy’s interest in the hairstyle comes from the connection to the character. “I feel very lucky that, from the second I read the script, I just knew this person. I felt so fiercely protective over Furiosa, and fiercely protective of her interests.” That’s an interesting statement, given the fact that the actor steps into a role originated by someone else, Theron.

In fact, Miller wrote what became the Furiosa script while working on Fury Road, much to the excitement of Theron. “She said, ‘Please, George, can we make this first?’” Miller told Empire. “It was the first time I realized that there’s something really strong in this story.” Given Theron’s hopes for the story, one would think that she would hold a grudge over being replaced by a different performer. But Taylor-Joy insists that’s not the case. “She’s been so classy and kind in letting me go and do it,” Taylor-Joy says of Theron.

Theron’s acceptance with he recasting stems, in part, from the necessity of the story. More than a mere prequel, Furiosa takes place over the 15 years leading up to Fury Road. The film finds Furiosa kidnapped from the Green Place of Many Mothers. Forced to participate in the battle between Demenus and Immortan Joe, Furiosa searches for a way to return to her home.

Miller promises a more epic story than any of his previous Mad Max films, one that takes Furiosa all over this post-apocalyptic world. It represents the growth of an orphan into the warrior we will later meet in Fury Road. So even if Taylor-Joy doesn’t get to cut her hair in the way she had hoped, it’s clear that she’ll get to play Furiosa in all her complexity.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga comes to theaters on May 24, 2024.