With Fury Road it seems everyone here is overlooking the fact why it ended up with a secondary character as the lead, Mad Mel was going to come back to the role some years ago for an absurd amount of money (I seem to recall the number being $25 million) and only work for eight days. This was long before those WETA cars were made. The secondary role wasnt written as a female. Also overlooked in this mess is the mass amount of reshoots adding more Hardy Max to Fury Road. If anyone else here had seen the early cut of the film im certain they would chime in and tell you, it wasnt in any way shape or form a Mad Max movie, it was all Furiosa. Its been mentioned in this thread prior the film stumbles on whom the lead is. If this were to be that Mad Mel movie, it wasnt his story but the secondary character who is the lead. In the end result of Fury Road, the reshoots seemed to have confused people as the title is Mad Max Fury Road, not just Fury Road.
Now, imagine if Mad Mel had come back as an aged Max, in a desparate attempt to steal supplies from an encampment he is captured. He then meets up with someone who recalls stories of a lone man in the wasteland.... Max's story then confirms lore and legend and we are free to allow that secondary character to take over the majority of the film as the escape and chases happen. Eight days of filming would equal about eight minutes of footage on screen for one character.
Instead of the lore and legend happening between characters, its force fed to us in a series of bizarre and out of place flashbacks and visions in Hardy Max's own mind. That means he is Max and not someones version of a wasteland story we are being told.
Ive said it before, take the Mad Max out of the title and its a decent movie, its just not a Mad Max movie, and doesnt seem as if was intended to be from the start about 20 years ago.