Rumor: George Miller Is Turning Mad Max: The Wasteland Into a TV Series

Max might be heading back into the desert... just maybe not the way George Miller originally planned. Here is where the long, dusty saga of Mad Max: The Wasteland stands now, plus a weird video game wrinkle that is very inside baseball.

So what exactly was The Wasteland?

Right after Mad Max: Fury Road hit in 2015, George Miller said he already had more stories ready to go: a screenplay and a novella, with Max set to return in a movie called The Wasteland. The idea, as it has been described over the years, was a prequel covering a single year in Max Rockatansky's life leading up to the events of Fury Road.

Cut to the present and the only thing Miller has managed to get made in that universe since is 2024's Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The Wasteland, meanwhile, has been stuck in development purgatory.

The video game wrinkle (aka: why this gets confusing)

Remember the 2015 Mad Max game from WB Games where you play as Max? That game pulls from Miller's earlier, unreleased game concept he was trying to mount around 2010 — which, by all accounts, basically told the story that became The Wasteland. WB Games took the broad skeleton of that concept and reworked it heavily. Miller was unhappy with the changes, asked to have his name removed, and no longer considers the released 2015 game part of his film canon (even though he initially wanted it to be).

The original 2010-ish game story is said to be what Miller adapted into his novella, which in turn fed into the planned film version of The Wasteland. So there is a single through-line here — it just got scrambled when the game came out in a different form.

New rumor: not a movie anymore, but a series?

According to the Mad Max Bible YouTube channel, who say they spoke with undisclosed inside sources, The Wasteland might still have life — but as a limited TV series instead of a feature film. If true, that would be the latest pivot for a project that has been through plenty of starts, stops, and format changes. Grain of salt, obviously, but the channel claims the series would draw from the same material Miller seeded across that original game concept and his novella.

And where does Tom Hardy fit into this?

In a recent Forbes interview, Tom Hardy was asked point-blank if he will be starring in Mad Max: The Wasteland. His response was short and wonderfully unhelpful:

"I don't think that's happening."

You can read that two ways: either Hardy does not think the project is happening at all, or he thinks it might happen without him as Max. He did not elaborate.

Where things stand right now

• After Fury Road in 2015, Miller said he had a screenplay and a novella ready and planned a Max-led prequel called The Wasteland.
• The only project made since then is 2024's Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
• The 2015 WB Games Mad Max title borrowed the bones of Miller's earlier (unreleased) game concept from around 2010, which essentially told The Wasteland story.
• WB's changes led Miller to remove his name and reject the 2015 game as canon, even though he originally intended it to be.
• Miller's 2010-era game story fed into a novella, which fed into the film plan for The Wasteland.
• Per the Mad Max Bible YouTube channel, undisclosed sources say The Wasteland is now being eyed as a limited TV series.
• Tom Hardy, asked if he will star, said: "I don't think that's happening," which doesn't clarify if he means the project or his involvement.

Bottom line: there is smoke around a Wasteland pivot to TV, the underlying story DNA is real and has been sitting there since 2010, and Hardy is publicly skeptical. Until Miller or a studio plants a flag, assume we are still wandering the wasteland on this one.