In the mid-'90s there was huge hype around a Mad Max television show that never entered production, prompting some franchise fans to wonder what happened to the potentially exciting project. The Mad Max series has a messy trajectory. Beginning as a low-budget cult hit that exceeded expectations in its native Australia and became a massive financial success worldwide, Mad Max soon spawned sequels that opened up its fictional universe and grew gradually more elaborate and ambitious in scope.
However, although critic Roger Ebert loved 1985’s Beyond Thunderdome, the movie’s otherwise muted critical reception and leading man Mel Gibson’s increasingly busy schedule led the Mad Max creators to take a break from the franchise in the late-'80s. Little did they know that this break would end up lasting three decades and eventually resulted in Gibson being recast as the actor aged out of the role. In 1995, though, it seemed as though the character of Mad Max was destined for a new life—on the small screen.
A Mad Max television show was announced with a Variety ad in 1995, and soon become the subject of intense hype. As such, many fans have wondered over the years why the show never materialized and whether its cancellation indirectly lead to 2015’s belated Mad Max sequel, Fury Road. For a long time, this seemed, like Fury Road’s closing quote, to be yet another Mad Max mystery that would go unsolved by fans. Fortunately, critic/film historian Kyle Buchanan’s 2022 book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road has shed new light on both the doomed television show the sci-fi franchise almost produced and its surprising relation to Fury Road.
Mad Max’s Canceled TV Show
While going through the list of intellectual properties they owned the rights to and could potentially reinvent as television shows, Warner Bros decided that the Mad Max movies were one of the studio’s best bets for a profitable franchise. Despite obvious logistical issues (like Robocop were also receiving family-friendly makeovers (some more successful than others) to facilitate tie-in toy lines, and Mad Max was a potential golden goose thanks to the franchise’s cartoony, instantly recognizable characters, and high action quotient.
However, no amount of potential toys could sway an unconvinced George Miller. Miller was interested in a long-from story that could expand the 21 Jump Street showrunner Eric Blakeney was tapped for the project and began working on the show with Miller, with the duo immediately hitting it off. The hype was big, but hope for the Mad Max television show faded fast as the two started collaborating in earnest.
Why Mad Max’s TV Show Failed
Although Miller was willing to compromise for TV by cutting the explicit violence of the Mad Max movies that arose from the mercurial director only working on the series once he was certain he had a fresh, innovative idea for a sequel.
How Fury Road Came About From Mad Max’s TV Failure
Although Mad Max’s television show never came to fruition, it did introduce Miller to a vital collaborator who went on to help him shape the future of the franchise. Although 20 years ed between Mad Max’s canceled TV show and Fury Road, the television series that never was led Miller to comic artist Brendan McCarthy, who went on to co-write the sequel with him. Miller met with McCarthy after the artist sent him a Road Warrior-inspired episode of a television show he worked on, REBoot, along with a note asking about the future of the Mad Max franchise. At the time that the two met, Miller was still considering the Mad Max television show, although McCarthy bluntly asked why he wouldn’t work on a movie sequel instead.
Brendan McCarthy’s Mad Max 4 Movie Pitch
Involving vials of sperm as a central MacGuffin, McCarthy’s Mad Max 4 pitch was a little too intense for television and cinema alike. Although McCarthy’s treatment for a Mad Max sequel was too wild and weird, some elements of his story ended up shaping Miller’s ideas for Fury Road. Despite the comic book audacity of his treatment (or perhaps because of it), McCarthy’s story pitch impressed Miller, who started working on a movie sequel rather than a television series. Between McCarthy and Miller’s first meeting, there were still decades of delays, false starts, revisions, rewrites, and recasting to go through before viewers got the Mad Max franchise’s fourth movie in 2015. However, the earliest iteration of what would become Fury Road came from their meeting, all prompted by the Mad Max television show that fans never actually got to see.
Kyle Buchanan’s Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road is out now.
