It's been 30 years since George Miller completed his trilogy of movies starring Mel Gibson: Mad Max (1979), The Road Warrior (1981) and Beyond Thunderdome (1985). In the intervening years he's kept busy with the Babe and Happy Feet franchises. But now he's back with Mad Max: Fury Road, which he refuses to call either a sequel or a reboot. He's just freshening the franchise, like the James Bond movies do every few years.

Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury RoadTom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road

And he said this week that he has "other stories and other scripts" ready to go if Fury Road is a box office success. "It really depends on whether everyone, particularly me, has an appetite to go back into the wasteland," he says of the post-apocalyptic desert setting. "It's like asking a woman who's just given birth, 'You wanna try it again?'"

More: Mel Gibson spotted at Fury Road premiere

The new Max, Tom Hardy, is clearly up for more. "On the level of really cool characters to play in an epic franchise, Max is right up there," he says. "There's no CGI - very, very little - and it's brutally visceral."

Watch the trailer for Mad Max: Fury Road here: 



And costar Charlize Theron is also happy to further develop her character Imperator Furiosa. "I've always wanted to explore the genre a little bit more," she says. "especially because I think it's such a misconception that women don't want to go and see these movies. There's something really, really nice about playing this woman who is a woman, first of all, but is a rogue warrior just like Max, and can fight just as well as Max with one arm."

More: Read our review of Mad Max: Fury Road

She goes on to express her thoughts about how women are often misrepresented in action movies. "Why do we have to go and see the genre every single time with the girl in the back of the frame in a push-up bra? Why isn't there a girl that's standing on the same playing field with the guys? We don't want to be guys, but in a post-apocalyptic world, we will survive!"