EDGAR Wright, the British director behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, has claimed credit for the casting of Anya Taylor-Joy in Furiosa. It was her appearance in Wright’s Last Night in Soho that first piqued the interest of George Miller, creator of the Mad Max franchise.

Meeting Wright for dinner in March 2020, having caught an early cut of the film, Miller wondered aloud whether Taylor-Joy might make a good fit for his coming Fury Road prequel. Not missing a beat, Wright replied ‘Do it, do it! She’s a star, get her now!’ Let’s backtrack. Furiosa has been a long time coming and the full story far predates Wright’s involvement. It was, after all, 45 years ago that Miller first unveiled his vision for the Mad Max universe.

Back in 1979, it was Mel Gibson at the beating heart of the original Mad Max, Miller’s dystopian action thriller, set in a crumbling future Australia. While he fronted the next two in the series, 2015’s franchise reboot - Mad Max: Fury Road - saw Gibson replaced by a fearsome Tom Hardy.

Fury Road proved a smash hit, bagging big bucks at the box office and six Oscars in quick succession. It was, however, not Hardy who set the fans alight. Terrific though he undoubtedly was, there was no escaping that Fury Road belonged to Charlize Theron’s steely and instantly iconic Imperator Furiosa. The call for more was deafening.

And here it is. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is both prequel and standalone spin-off to Fury Road. Taylor-Joy stars as a younger Theron, with Alyla Browne carrying a surprising bulk of the film as the pint sized, but no less gutsy, Furiosa of her childhood.

It’s another rip-roaring entry in a franchise well known for pouring petrol on burning adrenaline. Where Fury Road condensed its narrative over just 36 hours, Furiosa breathes over a 15- year narrative, its episodes divided into titled chapters. You’d be hard pressed to call the pace here more measured but the effect is a deepening of character understanding.

As before, actual dialogue is kept to a minimum, with Miller instead deploying the language of visual expression. To this end, Taylor-Joy proves a master communicator. It’s a performance of extraordinary emotional intensity, raw, real and every bit Theron’s equal. Wright had it right, she’s a star.