As has long been rumored, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II are set to star in the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa, Collider has confirmed.

George Miller is returning to direct from a script he co-wrote with Nico Lathouris, and the prequel will explore Furiosa's backstory before she assisted Max Rockatansky in the desert. Taylor-Joy has big shoes to fill, as Oscar winner Charlize Theron portrayed Furiosa in Fury Road.

Miller will produce Furiosa alongside Doug Mitchell via their Australia-based company Kennedy Miller Mitchell. Miller's below-the-line team will include production designer Colin Gibson, editor Margaret Sixel, sound mixer Ben Osmo, and makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt, each of whom won an Oscar for their work on Fury Road, while Guy Norris will serve as stunt coordinator.

Hemsworth is expected to appear with a long, silver scar on his face as a character named Dementus, while Abdul-Mateen will likely be playing Pretorian. Their castings were first mentioned months ago as part of the Rumor of the Week segment on my podcast The Sneider Cut, which drops every Thursday on Collider. Both are excellent additions to this franchise, while Taylor-Joy has been a rising star since her breakout turn in The Witch, and she has reached the peak of her ascent with her high-profile casting as Furiosa. Expect another, even younger actress to also be cast as a 7-to-10-year-old Furiosa.

It's unclear whether the character of Max will make an appearance in Furiosa, but if he does pop up, it's unlikely that Tom Hardy would reprise his role from Fury Road because like Furiosa, Max would be much younger in this film, and maybe not even that "mad" yet. As such, this prequel doubles as a spinoff, since this long-running franchise has centered around Max since Mel Gibson first played the character in 1979.

If there's one thing that is clear about Furiosa beyond the casting, it's that this Warner Bros. movie is still a long way off, as Hemsworth is slated to start filming Thor: Love and Thunder in January. For the latest on Taika Waititi's Marvel sequel and what's in store for Natalie Portman's Jane Foster, click here.