Gal Gadot’s Audition For Furiosa In Mad Max: Fury Road Was Incredible

Gal Gadot once auditioned to play Imperator Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road and was reportedly “incredible.” George Miller’s low-budget Mad Max was released in 1979, starring Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky. The film’s unique post-apocalyptic world warranted the greenlighting of two sequels, both of which were released in the 80s. Decades later, Miller revisited his world with a fourth film, Fury Road (2015), starring Tom Hardy as Max and Charlize Theron as a new character, Furiosa.

Fury Road sees Max captured by a warlike cult led by the tyrannical Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Though used as a blood supply for one of Joe’s War Boys, Nux (Nicholas Hoult), Max soon finds himself involved in a high-speed chase alongside Furiosa, a high-ranking officer in Joe’s army who is helping the cult leader’s wives escape in her War Rig. On top of being a critical and commercial success, many consider Fury Road to be one of the greatest action films of all time.

A new book by Kyle Buchanan, Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, chronicles the film’s difficult creative process. An excerpt shared by Vulture reveals a number of alternative casting options. Miller and his casting director, Ronna Kress, began meeting with actors in 2009. Among those who read to play Furiosa were Jessica Chastain, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ruth Negga, and Gal Gadot—who, according to Kress, “gave an incredible audition. Incredible!” Read what Miller had to say below:

“She tested, and she did incredibly good work — already, you could see that she was very fine,” said Miller. “But here’s the thing about Gal: We were testing her not just for Furiosa but also for the Wives, and in terms of age, she fell in between.”

Gadot auditioned for Fury Road before Fast & Furious (2009) had even come out, back when she was looking for a bigger role in Hollywood. In the book, Gadot said that she was the runner-up for Furiosa with Charlize, and “had so many almosts for big, great things, but [she] was never big enough of a name.” Of course, Gadot would go on to debut as Diana, princess of the Amazons, in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), before starring in Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman (2017), Justice League (2017 & 2021), and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)—which have solidified her as the quintessential, live-action Wonder Woman.

While it’s fascinating to imagine Gadot in Fury Road, that casting would’ve completely changed the trajectory of her and Theron’s careers. Following her role as Furiosa, Theron has headlined actions films including Atomic Blonde (2017) and The Old Guard (2020), both of which have sequels in the works. Gadot recently appeared in Netflix’s Red Notice, is set to star in the Cleopatra biopic, and her tenure in the DC Extended Universe will continue with a third Wonder Woman film set to release in theaters in December 2023. As for Furiosa, Anya Taylor-Joy will play the character in a prequel film.