The “Mad Max” saga is a big family to which we return with pleasure. Like actor Josn Helman, who plays two different roles in “Fury Road” and its prequel “Furiosa”.
It’s a habit with George Miller: to entrust some of his actors with different roles within the postapocalyptic universe of the Wasteland, from Mad Max to Furiosa.
If we go back to the beginnings of the saga, we remember that Bruce Spence (multi-franchise actor who also distinguished himself in Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Narnia and Pirates of the Caribbean!) played the zany and friendly Captain of the Gyrocopter who helps Mel Gibson in Mad Max 2 (1981)… before playing the aviator Jedediah (still zany) and stealing the road warrior’s vehicle and camels in Mad Max Beyond the Dome of the thunder (1985)!
Warner Bros. Bruce Spence in “Mad Max 2” and “Mad Max 3”
In Fury Road, in 2015, the Australian filmmaker featured a new emblematic villain of the franchise: Immortan Joe, undisputed master of the Citadel. Under the respirator and the toothed mask on Lord of War, we found Hugh Keays-Byrne (disappeared in 2020), an actor who had already played an ultra-violent “Millerian” leader, on two wheels this time: in Mad Max (1979), he was Toecutter, sadistic leader of the biker gang that terrorizes the area and ends up killing Max’s wife and child.
Warner Bros.
Hugh Keays-Byrne in ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Fury Road’
In Furiosathe colossus Nathan Jones (Rictus Erectus, youngest child of Immortan Joe), John Howard (the People-Eater, master of Petroville) and Angus Sampson (the handyman surgeon “Organich Mechanic”) reprise the roles they played nine years later early in Fury Road. On the other hand, Josh Helman, who played War-Boy Slit in 2015, covered in white makeup, is certainly back in Furiosabut in a completely different role: here he plays Scrotus, third offspring of Immortan Joe, absent from Fury Road (but present in video games and comics).
Warner Bros.
Josh Herman in ‘Fury Road’ and ‘Furiosa’
A reunion between a director and an actor he appreciates? A nod to fans who like to find Easter eggs (like us)? Or perhaps a hidden clue about the organization of the Citadel: can we imagine that in the universe of the Wasteland imagined by George Miller, the War Boys – who are essentially recovered and indoctrinated among the Wretched – sometimes integrate into their ranks the offspring of Immortan Joe and his sons? This would therefore explain the resemblance between Scrotus and Slit… played by the same actor, therefore.
Did you notice – The hidden details of “Fury Road”