Talks of a new Mad Max project to follow up Fury Road have been in the works for a while, and fortunately for fans, a prequel film has been stated as in early development. The prequel will focus on the character of Furiosa however, Charlize Theron will not be returning to that role, as they are searching for a younger actress to play a younger version of the character. Theron recently described her being turned down to reprise the role as “a little heart breaking”

The actress discussed the prequel in a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter while promoting her new film The Old Guard. Theron stated that she ultimately gave the decision on where to take the story to George Miller by saying, “if he feels like he has to go about it this way, then I trust him in that manner.” She then mentioned that though Miller’s decision is potentially for the best, she still express that she was heartbroken about not returning to the film. She added that,  “I’m so grateful that I had a small part in creating her. She will forever be someone I think of and reflect on fondly.”

Theron also discussed the difficulty of getting big action roles like in Mad Max: Fury Road during the interview as that film was her first major action starring role since 2005’s Aeon Flux. The actress stated that, “A lot of women don’t get a second chance, but when men make these movies and fail miserably, they get chance after chance after chance to go and explore that again.” For her it was a miracle that she was able to get the role of Furiosa when she did, however it doesn’t change the fact that there is still a lot of difficulty when taking on these roles. She describe the action genre being one that is “not a very forgiving genre when it comes to women”.