After facing off against the apocalyptic wastelands of Australia, it looks like The Road Warrior has to face off against an apocalypse of another kind; the vast battleground of Summer 2015.
In a move that could prove to be as potentially suicidal as facing off against Lord Humungus himself, the upcoming fourth installment of the Mad Max franchise Mad Max: Fury Road has officially announced its release date of May 15th 2015. This pits the film amongst heavy competition like Avengers: Age of Ultron (which opens two weeks beforehand) and Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland (which opens a week afterwords). The film will be directed by George Miller (who directed, wrote and produced all three of the previous installments), will star Tom Hardy as the titular hero (replacing charming actor turned awkward bigot Mel Gibson), Nicholas Hoult and Charlize Theron and is set to be released in 3D (a first for the series).
This is obviously a huge risk for Warner Bros. I mean sure, audiences of the 80s and film geeks like us will probably be interested to see how a new installment of the classic post-apocalyptic film series will go, but what about your average Joe Schmo in the coveted 18-25 demographic? Will they come pouring in to see the newest entry in a franchise that hasn’t been in the pop culture zeitgeist since Beyond Thunderdome came out? By that point, it will have been a solid three decades since we saw Max ride a huge-ass vehicle through the sands of the wastelands. How can a distantly relevant pop culture icon like that seriously butt heads with the second Avengers movie? Only time will tell.
So, is this a wise decision on Warner Bros’ part? Can they pit Max against The Avengers in Thunderdome or should they “just walk away?” Post your thoughts in the comments below.
Via Variety
