The Mad Max spinoff Furiosa has a bit of a casting shakeup. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will exit the project. Tom Burke will replace him in the film.

Deadline reports Abdul-Mateen will exit Furiosa due to a scheduling conflict. The specific project causing the shift hasn’t been revealed, but it’s apparently a long-time passion project of the actor’s.

Burke, who recently played Orson Welles in Mank, will take over for Abdul-Mateen. He joins star Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays the title character Furiosa. The film also stars Chris Hemsworth.

Furiosa, a spinoff of 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, serves as an origin story for Furiosa. (Taylor-Joy takes over the role previously portrayed by Charlize Theron in the Mad Max film.) The stand-alone film comes from director and co-writer George Miller, who produces it alongside his long-time Oscar-nominated partner Doug Mitchell.

Miller’s original Mad Max action films date back to the late 70s and early 80s. The return of the franchise in 2015’s Fury Road proved hugely successful; The feature grossed over $375 million at the box office, scored a Best Picture nomination, and ultimately took home six Oscars.

Furiosa currently plans to release in 2024. So, we’ve still got quite a wait before we can catch Burke, Hemsworth, and Taylor-Joy in the Mad Max universe.

In the meantime, you can see Burke in the Cinemax series C.B. Strike, and catch Taylor-Joy’s latest film Last Night in Soho.

So, are you looking forward to Furiosa? What do you hope to see in the movie? Let us know in the comments below.

Meanwhile, check back to THS for more updates.

Source: Deadline