Why Mel Gibson Wasn't in Mad Max: Fury Road (2024)

Mel Gibson was once no stranger to franchise filmmaking. As one of the biggest stars of the 80s and 90s, Gibson was front and center in not just Academy Award-winning movies like Braveheart but also tentpole series like Lethal Weapon and Mad Max. Unfortunately, both those franchises had dried up by the early 2000s, and when Mad Max was finally set to make its return after a series of starts and stops, Gibson was no longer welcome back.

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The reasons for Mel Gibson's exile from the role of "Mad" Max Rockatansky are plentiful, even if none of those justifications were ever spoken of or addressed during 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road. There were creative considerations that went into the decision, but first and foremost was the mess Gibson had made of his professional career following a difficult stretch in his personal life in which the man's demons were brought kicking and screaming into the light in a manner none of us expected to see. Why wasn't Mel Gibson brought back for Fury Road, and is there any hope that he'll ever return to the franchise?

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After a very long hiatus following the release of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985, director George Miller began toying with the idea of returning to the franchise once again in the late 1990s. At that time, he had just been fired from directing the sci-fi film Contact and was approached by television producers with the idea of turning Mad Max into a Xena: Warrior Princess-style television series. That got him thinking of old ideas, and it didn't take long before he remembered that he had once considered making a wall-to-wall chase film set in the Mad Max universe, so he set about fleshing that concept out further.

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For a while, everything was going smoothly. Working with a team of artists, George Miller expanded upon his idea for what would become Fury Road and even got busy casting the picture, including striking a deal with Mel Gibson to return to the role that helped make him famous. In the book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, lead storyboard artist Mark Sexton recalls a meeting the production had in 2001 in which Gibson expressed how excited he was over the idea, saying,

"George, it's f***ing fantastic and I love it. But we've got to get this going now, because I'm nearly 50, and I don't even know if I can do it now, let alone in five or six years."

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Of course, as we all know, Mad Max: Fury Road did not officially enter production in 2001. After an unfortunate series of events, it didn't enter production for the next decade. That's because the journey to make this film suffered a series of starts and stops. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the U.S. dollar plummeted, and the studio that was then in charge of production, 20th Century Fox, became concerned about paying for the production to travel from Australia to the Namib Desert. That was enough to delay the movie indefinitely, and during that period, Mel Gibson not only aged out of the role for good, but substance abuse issues revealed his surprising dark side to the public.

Following the postponement of Fury Road, George Miller went on to direct the animated film Happy Feet. By the time he was ready to return to Fury Road, Mel Gibson was more or less trapped in "movie jail." The turbulence in Gibson's life largely stemmed from an arrest that transpired in 2006. At that time, Gibson was arrested for a DUI, and during the arrest, he unleashed a tirade of anti-Semitic remarks that leaked to the public. Gibson apologized and went through the motions of making amends, looking to meet with Jewish leaders to discern the "appropriate path for healing." But just four years later, he was recorded saying further hateful and racist comments during a conversation with his ex-girlfriend.

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After pleading no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge, Mel Gibson was officially blacklisted in Hollywood just as Mad Max: Fury Road suddenly sprung back to life. As production ramped up on the film, George Miller moved on from Gibson and cast Tom Hardy in the title role. When asked by the media if he had considered bringing Mel back, Miller insisted that the personal issues in Gibson's life were what the actor should be focusing on and that, ultimately, he had become too old to play the character anyway.

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Everyone knows the saying, "Time heals all wounds," and while that might not be true in every scenario, Hollywood has decided to give Mel Gibson another shot in recent years. Most of his acting roles have been confined to movies released directly to the home media market, but he's also directed the Academy Award-winning film Hacksaw Ridge and is in the middle of developing sequels to both The Passion of the Christ and Lethal Weapon. But just because one franchise might be ready to welcome Mel Gibson back doesn't necessarily mean the other is as well.

Mad Max Filmography

Year

Title

Star

IMDb Rating

1979

Mad Max

Mel Gibson

6.8

1981

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

Mel Gibson

7.6

1985

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Mel Gibson and Tina Turner

6.2

2015

Mad Max: Fury Road

Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron

8.1

2024

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth

7.5

During a discussion with Jake's Takes during the promotional release tour of the most recent Mad Max film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, George Miller was asked about the possibility of Mel Gibson ever returning to the role. He responded by clarifying that he has no plans on developing a Mad Max movie that would explore the character as an older man.

Of course, there's another pretty good reason why Mel Gibson will likely never return to Mad Max —the franchise might finally be over after the lukewarm box-office reception to Furiosa. Given how expensive these films are, Furiosa's losses of almost $100 million at the box office likely signaled the end of that franchise as a viable option for anyone, including Gibson. Miller's long-gestating idea known as Mad Max: The Wasteland might, sadly, never become a reality.

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When George Miller's idea for Fury Road was still barely fleshed out, and Mel Gibson was still officially involved in the project, the film's ending was markedly different from what we finally got. Up to that point, every Mad Max movie had more or less ended with the character of Max Rockatansky walking away from those he helped and returning to the Wasteland. In other words, he ended each story the same way he began them, alone. Fury Road was supposed to change all of that.

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In the initial idea for Fury Road's ending, Max is supposed to join Furiosa and the others in the elevator that takes them up to Immortan Joe's fortress and finally rejoin society for good. It was seen as a chance to say goodbye to Mel Gibson's Mad Max and complete his hero's journey. However, once Tom Hardy was recast in the role, the idea didn't make as much sense anymore. In fact, the concept of giving Max a happy ending became a point of contention throughout production.

By the time they were finally ready to shoot the ending, Miller had changed his mind. Rather than have Max join Furiosa on the elevator, he locks eyes with her and then disappears into the crowd, returning to the Wasteland yet again, still in search of himself. George Miller's co-writer on Fury Road, Nico Lathouris, described the decision in the following way,

"[Max] was not ready to love somebody. It almost happens with Furiosa, but he's not ready for that kind of life. He hasn't learned the lesson yet about grieving."

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In a certain sense, that reasoning is ironic because not only has the character of Mad Max never learned the necessary lessons to rejoin society, but it's arguable that neither has Mel Gibson, the former superstar who brought him to life. And now that no further Mad Max movie is currently in active development, both Mad Max and Mel Gibson might be destined to tread the sands of the Wasteland alone forever.

Why Mel Gibson Wasn't in Mad Max: Fury Road (5)

Mad Max: Fury Road

In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper and a drifter named Max.

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