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Since completing the original Mad Max trilogy in 1885, George Miller has taken a wonderfully chaotic and sideways glance at his post-apocalyptic tale of the titular Road Warrior.

2015's six-time Oscar winner Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the most electric action films of recent times and recast original star Mel Gibson with Britain's Tom Hardy for the boomerang- shaped story that hauled its characters across parched desert-scapes.

If Hardy's Max Rockatansky was the de facto lead, he more than met his match in Fury Road's rebellious new character Imperator Furiosa, the former war captain who turns against the Wasteland dictator Immortan Joe in order to free his five "wives". 

Memorably played by Charlize Theron, the one-armed Furiosa emerged as one of cinema's most exciting female action heroes of the 21st century. So, it's no surprise that Miller has turned to her for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a vividly rendered prequel that fleshes out her origin story.

Set 45 years after the collapse of civilisation and 15 years before the events of Fury Road, the film tells of how a young Furiosa is snatched from the tranquil Green Place of Many Mothers, where she falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde, led by the Warlord Dementus.

Dubbed "the darkest of angels", Furiosa is played by Anya Taylor-Joy, the American-born actress who lit up the Netflix-made chess drama, The Queen's Gambit, and Edgar Wright's London-set fantasia, Last Night In Soho. Here she is long-haired, a stark contrast to the shaven Furiosa played by Theron, and joining her is Australian actor Chris Hemsworth (who most notably played Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) taking on the outlandish villainous role of Dementus.

As this bearded warmonger sweeps through the Wasteland with his gang and Furiosa in tow, they come across the Citadel, presided over by Immortan Joe. While Dementus and this fellow tyrant compete for supremacy, Furiosa has to gather all her fortitude to survive as she schemes a way to escape her captors and find a way back home. It's an odyssey in which she will become the warrior we know from Fury Road.

Taylor-Joy and Hemsworth are not the only newbies to join the Mad Max universe. Also entering the fray are Tom Burke (so great as Orson Welles in David Fincher's Mank) and Alyla Browne, who previously appeared in Miller's Three Thousand Years Of Longing.
Yet Miller ensures that connections are made back to Fury Road. Actor Nathan Jones returns as Rictus Erectus, the muscle-bound, low-IQ son of Immortan Joe.

Another incentive for audiences to embrace the wonderful madness of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is the pedigree behind the camera, as well as in front of it. The film comes scripted by Miller and Nick Lathouris, who previously co-wrote Fury Road with the director and Brendan McCarthy (and who, many moons ago, played Grease Rat in the original Mad Max).

Also returning is fiercely inventive costume designer Jenny Beavan and editor Margaret Sixel, who both won Oscars for Fury Road, alongside the highly sought-after Tom Holkenborg – aka Junkie XL – the Dutch-born composer, who once again provides the score.

As for Miller, he is back doing what he does best: delivering a fiery, smart, visually spectacular, battle-hardened epic – one tailor-made for the biggest screen imaginable. Time to start your engines at Picturehouse.   James Mottram