Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
While George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is set in the decades before the events of Mad Max: Fury Road, the road warrior does have a cameo in the prequel. But since Tom Hardy didn’t return to the role, who plays Max Rockatansky?
While Fury Road takes place in a few days, Furiosa is Miller’s most ambitious entry in his expansive post-apocalyptic story, following the titular character for over 15 years. It’s an audacious approach to the Mad Max universe that doesn’t always work, but it shows fans what happened in the Wastelands before Max was captured by the War Boys.
While the new movie is focused chiefly on Furiosa, Miller included a small Max Rockatansky cameo. The character can be seen by the side of his signature Interceptor, eating food and gazing at the horizon. Mas watches as Furiosa crawls in the sand after losing her arm and does nothing to help her. It’s a curious cameo that shows both characters crossed paths before the events of Fury Road, even though they didn’t interact with each other.
For the Max Rockatansky cameo, Miller shot the scene from far away so fans couldn’t see who was playing the role. This way, the prequel can stick to continuity magic and pretend Hardy was there for the cameo. But just because Hardy was unavailable doesn’t mean Miller placed someone random on the set. The person playing Max Rockatansky is Jacob Tomuri, a stunt artist with a long history in the franchise.
Who is Jacob Tomuri, Furiosa’s Mad Max?
Jacob Tomuri is a versatile New Zealand actor and stuntman. His career took a significant turn when he was hired as a stunt double for Tom Hardy for Fury Road. Tomuri’s dedication to filmmaking and uncanny resemblance to Hardy started a years-long partnership, as the duo worked together in other major films such as The Revenant, Venom, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage. That shouldn’t be a surprise, as Tomuri is one of the stuntpeople who helped Fury Road get many accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble.
No one is better than Tomuri to replace Hardy in a Mad Max movie. Thanks to Fury Road, he knows the character in and out. So, even though Max Rockatansky only has a short cameo in Furiosa, Tomuri is ready to move and act like the road warrior, helping create the connectivity fans need to stitch all the movies together.