George Miller used the same actor for two different roles in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and Furiosa: A Mad Max saga (2024). This isn’t the first time he’s done this.
With Furiosa: A Mad Max saga, George Miller takes us once again to the wastelands of his universe born several decades ago. This time, he opted for a prologue deprived of his emblematic figure (or almost) and centered on a charismatic heroine. This choice allows the filmmaker to explore several points glimpsed in Mad Max: Fury Road.
In Furiosa: A Mad Max saga, we therefore meet familiar faces again, like Immortan Joe. He is still holed up in his Citadel, from where he quietly manages his empire. The most observant, however, will notice that his bodyguard welcomes a new character: Scrotus, one of Immortan Joe’s sons. Does his face mean anything to you? The actor who lends his features was already in Mad Max: Fury Roadbut in a different role.
Warning, the rest of this article contains minor spoilers on Furiosa: A Mad Max saga.
George Miller loves giving different roles to actresses and actors
In Furiosa: A Mad Max saga, it is Josh Helman who lends his features to Scrotus. The actor had also been mobilized by George Miller in Mad Max: Fury Road to put on the costume of Slit — a War Boy close to Nux (Nicholas Hoult). The two protagonists, although belonging to the same camp (that of Immortan Joe), have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
If the majority of spectators will not make the connection, this casting may cause some problems of consistency. Because we don’t see Scrotus die in Furiosa: A Mad Max saga. Would it become Slit in Mad Max: Fury Road ? No, but this implies a gray area in his destiny, while he apparently occupies an important place in the eyes of Immortan Joe (he is his son).
But we must still remember that George Miller is accustomed to doing this. In the past, he has already employed an actor for two different roles. Died in December 2020 at the age of 73, Hugh Keays-Byrne played Immortan Joe in Mad Max: Fury Roadalthough he had already played the role of the villain in the very first Mad Max from 1979.
In Furiosa: A Mad Max saga, an actor and an actress each have two different roles. Thus, Lacey Hulme plays both Immortan Joe and Rizzdale Pell (one of Dementus’ right-hand men) while Elsa Pataky, the companion of Chris Hemsworth (who plays Dementus), appears at the very beginning of the film, within the Green Earth, then as Dementus’ minion. George Miller really has more than one trick up his sleeve.
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