In a recent interview, director George Miller revealed why Mel Gibson was not cast in the lead role for Mad Max: Fury Road, even though he had helmed the previous movies in the series up until now.

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Tom Hardy plays Max Rockatansky aka Mad Max in the new film and Gibson was disregarded because he was too old to play the character. While Arnold Schwarzenegger will be seen playing the iconic cyborg in Terminator: Genysis, despite his age, it seems like Gibson wasn't considered because the story could not accomodate the age factor.

"You're picking up the characters and the backstory as you go. And in order to create that backstory, we found ourselves having written two other screenplays," Miller said. "One of them is completed. The other one is in the form of a kind of unedited novel."

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"By the time we got there, we realized we've got a couple more Mad Max stories to tell, and that ... required us to cast someone who was younger," he added.

The director also weighed in on the recent controversies that have surrounded Gibson, stating that Gibson still had a lot of great work left in him, both as an actor and director.

"I have a great affection for Mel. I was really heartbroken to see him go into (the scandals)," he said. "But it's a new time. I hope Mel gets to act in more movies because I think he's a wonderful actor. But I think he's an amazingly good director."

The movie also stars Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult.

Mad Max: Fury Road will hit theaters on May 15, 2015.

Watch the trailer for the movie here:

Tags: Mad Max: Fury Road Mel Gibson George Miller Movies