Avengers star Chris Hemsworth will play “totally against type” as villain in Mad Max: Furiosa movie

Chris Hemsworth in Avengers: Endgame — (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Over the years, we’ve grown rather accustomed to seeing Chris Hemsworth play hero types onscreen, whether as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or as a leading man in Extraction, Snow White and the Huntsman, and Men in Black: Internationa. However, in the upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road spin-off Furiosa, the actor will be flipping the script in Furiosa as he's set to play the lead villain.

While Hemsworth's casting was announced way back in 2020, his role was only recently confirmed by Fury Road’s Assistant Director P.J. Voeten in the new book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road.

"[He] saw Chris [Hemsworth] initially as a courtesy and then fell in love with the idea," Voeten said of franchise creator George Miller (via Slash Film). "He's going to play totally against type, the lead baddie. Unfortunately, we've got to find all of our other characters that aren't around anymore: a new Immortan [Joe], a new Bullet Farmer, and a few others."

Mad Max: Furiosa will see Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy (Last Night in Soho, Peaky Blinders) share the screen with Mank’s Tom Burke, who replaced Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s when the Candyman actor exited the project late last year.

Little has been revealed about the plot so far, but we do know Taylor-Joy will be playing a younger version of Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa, the rebellious war captain who teamed up with Tom Hardy’s Max Rockatansky to free Immortan Joe’s 'Five Wives'.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in July 2020, Theron described the recasting as "a little heartbreaking." She was quick to admit, though, how excited she is to see the character’s story continue with or without her.

"She will forever be someone I think of and reflect on fondly," she said. "If [George] feels like he has to go about it this way, then I trust him in that manner. We get so hung up on the smaller details that we forget the thing that we emotionally tap into has nothing to do with that minute thing that we’re focusing on."

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.