It looks like 2024 might just be the year of Anya Taylor-Joy.

The 28-year-old actress has already featured in one of the biggest film releases of the year – Dune: Part Two – and now she leads the cast in the next instalment in the Mad Max franchise.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga serves as the prequel to its 2015 counterpart Mad Max: Fury Road and tells the origin story of Furiosa, first depicted by Charlize Theron.

Director George Miller contemplated using de-ageing technology in the prequel to allow Theron to continue on with the franchise but instead opted for a new actor entirely to continue the franchise – Taylor-Joy.

He says Taylor-Joy exceeded his expectations: “That’s a tough thing to take on this role and to fill Charlize’s boots.”

He adds: “Anya has this presence and power. Halfway through the shoot [I noticed she was] no longer Anya, she was Furiosa.”

Speaking to Sky News at the UK premiere of Furiosa, Taylor-Joy says she was aware of the big boots she needed to fill and tried not to think about it during production.

“I tried not to take on the pressure, only because you get paralysed with fear, like you can’t do anything, but I fell in love with Furiosa through Charlize and I feel like the character is so important that it just made me more adamant to fight for the humanity of her,” she says.

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Taylor-Joy is joined by Chris Hemsworth as Dr Dementus, the 40-year-old’s first role as a villain.

“The villain’s fun, you know, they get to be inconsistent, and they don’t have to stick to the rules. And that’s why it’s very freeing,” he says.

The Thor actor says as much as he loves playing a superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are always going to be “rules and expectations and limitations”.

He says: “[With this role], there’s this sort of maniac personality that I just needed to run free. I need it to be chaotic and so any of that sort of energy that was swirling within me I was able to use.”

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Furiosa premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year and so far leads with the longest-standing ovation.

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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is in cinemas on 24 May

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