Can Furiosa’s outstanding characters live up to Doof Warrior’s legacy?

How can you top something that is already ridiculous, joyful and emphatically exaggerated? That is the great existential question that faced George Miller in making Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagathe exciting prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road. The first film is over-the-top maximalist, with screaming, shaven-headed, white-painted War Boys gleefully spraying chrome on their teeth before plunging to their deaths, and chase after chase in which a massive War Rig and a seemingly endless array of smaller vehicles are covered in skulls, chains, creepy dolls, and whatever else the designers could throw at them.

But nothing in the film is more over-the-top than the Doof Warrior, the fan-favorite hard rocker who bungees around a giant stack of speakers, clad in red long johns and wearing his dead mother’s face, wields a fire-breathing guitar and plays wicked licks to inspire Immortan Joe’s hyped-up collection of Valhalla-minded goofballs to go even harder in battle. Recently, a group of Polygon staffers discussed Angryand someone asked, “Who is the Doof Warrior equivalent in this movie?”

The most obvious answer is that there isn’t one – at least there isn’t anyone who is ridiculous in the same way and on the same level. But one of the best things about Angry is that Miller is not just trying to copy himself, so he doesn’t, for example, add a flame-breathing brass band to his new film to up the ante on something that was already perfect. But in terms of who AngryThe breakout character might be – which could inspire fan art and fan engagement once more people have seen the film – well, we beg to differ. Experience it for yourself!

Praetorian Jack

Jack is in some ways the exact opposite of the Doof Warrior – quiet where DW is flashy, content to blend into the crowd rather than live for the spectacle, and dresses much more stylishly. (Red pajamas are So before the apocalypse.) But I think he’s the character that goes far in the fandom because, like the Doof Warrior, he stands out radically from everyone else. There’s just so little room in the Mad Maxiverse for people who do their job without constantly shouting about it and trying to make every success seem bigger and more praiseworthy than it actually is.

And his connection with Furiosa seems designed to leave a mark on viewers—perhaps even bigger than on Furiosa herself. She’s so vengeful that there isn’t much room in her life for other people, but she makes room for Praetorian Jack, perhaps because he’s polite enough not to take up more space there than she’s willing to give. There’s also not much room for tenderness or compassion in the wasteland, as Dementus tells us. The fact that Praetorian Jack manages to bring that into the franchise, too, makes him unforgettable even as one of the series’ most unassuming characters. —Tasha Robinson

The Octoboss

The only thing the Wastelanders of the Mad Max series respect more than power and violence is branding. Surviving the Fury Road is about picking a theme, cobbling together a cool costume, and giving yourself a crazy name that people are afraid not to call you. And the person who does all of that best, Angry is the Octoboss.

Dementus’ former ally, who eventually makes it clear that he’s out for his own gain instead, ticks all the boxes of one of the Wasteland’s biggest weirdos. He’s got a great helmet, pitch black and probably impossible to see, with huge horns that would surely throw off his balance, and a troop of loyal riders who would die under his command. But just as importantly, he also knows how to pull off like a badass. Sure, he gets mangled at the end of his ill-fated attempt at conquest, but my god, what a beautiful, tentacle-like mess he leaves behind! As an added bonus, his octopus costume also gives us one of the film’s most stunning visual moments, and one of the clearest indications that Miller is going for something far more picturesque and strange than the look he went for in Fury Road. —Austen Goslin

Smeg

OK, to be honest, no one is going to fixate on Smeg, Dementus’ weaselly, hunched hype man. Smeg’s entire existence seems to be built around standing next to the warlord and repeating the forward-facing emotions of his statements in exaggerated facial expressions, crouching low to show sympathy and shaking his fists to show triumph. Like a more versatile, if mute, Anger Translator.

No, I don’t expect to see much of Smeg at Comic-Con — Perhaps a couple Halloween costume featuring Dementus and his main follower. But there is something fascinating about the idea of ​​a wasteland fool, ringing pitifully through the dust. —Susana Polo

War Pup

Quaden Bayles’ War Pup has one job: operating the Bommyknocker, the device attached to the back of the War Rig. Immortan Joe’s mechanics are very proud of the Bommyknocker, and when it first hits the road, War Pup is excited to finally be able to use this ultimate weapon on the Fury Road – which is understandable, because I was just as excited throughout the entire sequence to finally see what the Bommyknocker could do! But in the wasteland, we’re all punchlines. Just when it’s time to finally use the Bommyknocker, War Pup takes a bullet to the brain and he never gets to see how damn metallic it is in action.

To me, War Pup is most similar to the Doof Warrior in that he has a very specific function that audiences are dying to see, but he also seems a lot more interesting than the limited role he has in the wasteland. Perhaps we’ll learn more about him in some form at some point, but in the meantime, the actor who plays him has a story that lives up to the hype. Bayles went viral in 2020 after a bullying incident when he was teased about his achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism. When Bayles’ story was noticed by the Australian news media, Miller offered him a small role In Three thousand years of longing – and liked him enough to continue working with him on Angry. Be witness of him! —Joshua Rivera