Furiosa: A Mad Max saga premiering at Cannes | Cannes Film Festival

The highly anticipated action-adventure film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is set to premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Director George Miller returned to the world of his Oscar-winning film Mad Max: Fury Road with a prequel exploring the origins of Furiosa, a character previously played by Charlize Theron. The prequel stars Anya Taylor-Joy in the role with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke also in the lead role.

“The idea for this prequel has been in my head for over a decade,” Miller said in a statement. “I couldn’t be more excited to return to the Cannes Film Festival – with Anya, Chris and Tom (Burke) – to share Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. There is no better place than La Croisette to discover this film for audiences around the world.

In 2015, Mad Max: Fury Road also premiered at the festival and went on to win six Academy Awards and gross $380 million worldwide. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it “extravagantly deranged, breathtakingly cacophonous and completely over-the-top” in his review.

Since then, Miller has also premiered Three Thousand Years of Longing at the festival. The fantasy drama starred Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba.

When asked if Taylor-Joy would take on the role, Theron called she is “one of the greatest fucking actresses”.

“It’s the dirtiest, bloodiest movie I’ve ever been through, which is saying something, really saying something,” Taylor-Joy said of filming.

The actor, whose roles include The Queen’s Gambit, The Witch and The Menu, will also be seen next in Apple’s action romance The Gorge alongside Miles Teller.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will be screened out of competition at the festival, shortly before its theatrical release. The full lineup will be officially announced next month, but speculation suggests new films from Jacques Audiard, Andrea Arnold and Francis Ford Coppola could be included. This year’s jury will be chaired by Greta Gerwig.