The first Mad Max movie was a microbudget production pulled off on a wing and a prayer, while the most recent entry was a mega-budget blockbuster with the backing of a major studio. Mad Max is perhaps the most unlikely hit franchise in Hollywood history — it’s shamelessly weird and unrelentingly dark.

Over the course of its 45-year history, Mad Max has undergone plenty of changes. The scale has gotten bigger, the colors have gotten more vibrant, and the title character has been recast — and Mad Max is still going strong, at least creatively. These are the biggest evolutions in the Mad Max franchise.

5 Max Rockatansky Has Been Recast

Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road

In the original Mad Max trilogy, the titular role of Max Rockatansky was played by Mel Gibson. This was the role that put Gibson on the map, long before he would play Martin Riggs in the Lethal Weapon franchise or William Wallace in Braveheart. He made Max an iconic character; the defining archetype of the lone-wolf warrior traversing a lawless post-apocalyptic wasteland, stopping off to save communities in need of a hero.

But when Miller came to make the fourth Mad Max film, he recast the role. As awesome as it would’ve been to see an “Old Man Max” movie starring Gibson, Gibson had aged out of the role of Max for the story that Miller wanted to tell in Mad Max: Fury Road. Instead, Tom Hardy was cast to put his own stamp on the role.

4 There Was A 30-Year Gap Between Mad Max Sequels

Tina Turner as Aunty Entity in the Thunderdome in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

During the simpler time of the original trilogy, there was a new Mad Max movie every three years. The Road Warrior arrived three years after Mad Max in 1982, then Beyond Thunderdome arrived three years after that in 1985. But then, it would be 30 long years before Mad Max fans got a new movie in 2015’s Fury Road, and another nine years after that before 2024’s Furiosa.

This is one of the longest gaps between sequels in movie history. There were 19 years between Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There were 36 years between Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick. There were 54 years between Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Returns. Mad Max’s three-decade hiatus sits somewhere in the middle.

3 Mad Max's Budgets Have Gotten Much Bigger

Chris Hemsworth surrounded by red smoke in Furiosa A Mad Max Saga

The budgets of the Mad Max movies have gotten much, much bigger over the years (via made Mad Max the most profitable movie ever made (a record verified by Guinness). This success allowed the sequels’ budgets to get steadily bigger and bigger.

The Road Warrior was produced for $2 million, then Beyond Thunderdome was produced for $10 million. After a hiatus of a few decades, when Mad Max came back in the 2010s, it returned as a mega-scale blockbuster property. Warner Bros. entrusted Miller with a whopping $150 million to make Fury Road and $168 million to make Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The entire budget of the original film wouldn’t even cover Furiosa’s catering budget.

2 Mad Max's Color Palette Has Gotten A Lot More Vibrant

A car chase in Mad Max Fury Road

When he was shooting the original Mad Max trilogy, Miller went out into the barren landscapes of the Australian Outback to bring his post-apocalyptic wasteland to life. It had a very dull, dreary palette. But when he came back to make more Mad Max films in the blockbuster age of the 2010s, he dialed up the brightness and made those colors a lot more vibrant and saturated.

In the 30 years between Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road, CGI was invented and the color-grading process got a lot more advanced. This allowed Miller to turn those barren landscapes into a truly otherworldly vision of a dystopian future. The dunes became a bright orange and the skies became a sumptuous turquoise.

1 Mad Max Has Expanded Beyond Max Into A Spinoff

Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa Peeking Around a Corner in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

In the original trilogy, the Mad Max series focused solely on Max. But the more recent entries have expanded beyond Max. Fury Road focused more on Furiosa’s quest to liberate Immortan Joe’s wives and get them to the safe haven of the Green Place; Max was more of a ing player in that story. With the next movie, Miller moved past Max completely and told Furiosa’s origins in a prequel spinoff.

Furiosa showed that there are a lot more stories to tell and a lot more corners to explore in this gonzo post-apocalyptic world. Max is the star of the franchise, but this universe isn’t confined just to him. There are plenty of fascinating characters trying to make their way in Mad Max’s ruthless world.

Source: The Numbers