'Mad Max: Fury Road' Director George Miller Won't Come Back for Tom Hardy Sequel

Last year, Mad Max: Fury Road, the reboot of the film that turned Mel Gibson into a superstar, became a critical and box office success, and it is now packing up recognition during awards season. George Miller, the creator of the original story, has just confirmed he won't be directing Tom Hardy in the sequel.

Last Sunday, Miller was nominated as Best Director for Fury Road, and during the red carpet ahead of the award show, he spoke to The New York Post's Page Six, vowing never to return to the post-apocalyptic world he created. It seems like the last movie's production was a little more than he could bear.

"I won't make more Mad Max movies. Fury Road with Charlize Theron, Zoë Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Riley Keough was forever getting completed. If you finish one in a year, it's considered a leap of faith," Miller told the outlet. "Those Mad Maxes take forever. I won't do those anymore."

For the last film, the cast and crew had to endure adverse weather and 18 months of on-and-off filming. Miller shared he's not willing to go back and forth from the U.S. to Australia on such a regular basis, considering every flight is 27 hours. Really, it makes sense, considering nobody wants to go through that kind of schedule much less the filmmaker, who's turning 71 next March.

Still, the news comes a surprise, considering that just last year, the Happy Feet director told Den of Geek that he'd already planned two more sequels to the films after the delays of Fury Road prompted him and his team to "sit down and [write] deep backstories."

The next Mad Max film has already been announced, and while there are no dates, it's believed that Miller will serve as a producer for the upcoming film, which won't feature Theron's Imperator Furiosa, arguably the film's most iconic character.