Every Actor Tom Hardy Beat To Play Mad Max In Fury Road
Although Tom Hardy made the lead role his own, the star had to beat out a long list of competitors for the part in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Fury Road was not an easy movie to make. Released three decades after 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Fury Road was a massive critical and commercial hit upon release, but the sequel’s success was hard-earned.
In the intervening years, the franchise came upon a major problem when original series star Mel Gibson aged out of the title role. Although franchise newcomer Tom Hardy and Gibson play the same Mad Max, the search for the character’s new face was not a quick or easy one, as proven by Kyle Buchanan’s “When Max Met Furiosa,” Vulture’s oral history of the movie’s casting process. Dozens of big-name (and in some cases, surprisingly little-known) actors were considered before Hardy won the part.
Related: Mad Max Fury Road: The History Men Explained
Among these names, some will come as no surprise to longtime fans of the Mad Max franchise. Director George Miller has never made a secret of his desire to cast the late Heath Ledger in the role, and an earlier article on potential Mad Max actors listed the likes of Jeremy Renner among others. However, even Mad Max super fans may be surprised to learn how close Michael Fassbender was to receiving the role, or the fact that Armie Hammer was considered. Meanwhile, the news that then-rising star Joel Kinnaman was in the running will come as a shock to some, although it is not as surprising as hearing that rapper/actor Eminem could have played the sci-fi icon as well.
At 53 years old, veteran screen star Eric Bana is perhaps the least surprising name among the potential Mad Max actors revealed by Buchanan’s long-read. After all, he is
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