How Soon Does Fury Road Take Place After Furiosa In The Mad Max Timeline?

The entire timeline of the "Mad Max" movies might feel overwhelming to some. Starting in 1979, the franchise has now spanned decades, most recently shifting from the original road warrior's journey to focus on the MVP of "Mad Max: Fury Road" in "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga." Played in the 2015 film by Charlize Theron and in the 2024 prequel by Anya Taylor-Joy, Furiosa was first introduced as another hero of The Wasteland with a tortured past — 18 years of which are explored in "Furiosa." What might surprise some is that the Imperator's backstory ends just as "Fury Road" begins.

The closing moments of "Furiosa" reveal that our hero succeeded in her mission of vengeance against her captor Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Leaving her foe to fuse with the tree she swore to plant years before in a hidden spot within the Citadel, her success quite literally bears fruit for the brides of Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), who are plotting to escape. In the film's final moments, we see Furiosa stow the brides away for their drive down Fury Road, an epic journey audiences first witnessed nine years earlier. While a seamless creative choice from director George Miller to fortify the characters we met more than a decade ago, it marks a huge change for the rest of the franchise.

The distance between "Mad Max" and "Mad Max: The Road Warrior" is three years, while it's another 15 years until the events of "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome." In the case of "Mad Max: Fury Road," details get a little iffy: it's never really confirmed how long it's been since Max battled Aunty Entity (Tina Turner) in Mel Gibson's last stint as the hero. But with "Furiosa," George Miller tightened the timeline and any future "Mad Max" film is likely to do the same.

Miller explained to Collider that he needed to find out for himself where his characters landed in "Fury Road," specifically Furiosa and Max. "We had to write the story of Furiosa and the 18 years, as it turns out, before we meet her in 'Fury Road,'" he revealed. "We also had to write the story of the year of Max in the year before we encounter him in 'Fury Road.' So we have that story. We wrote that as a novella, Nico Lathouris and I, and so that's the story we have yet to tell."

Sadly, "Furiosa" was not a box office success, casting the future of the franchise in doubt for the moment. But it shouldn't be a shock to imagine that "Mad Max 5" will be even better than you think if it ever gets to the screen.