Tom Hardy Offers Unexpected Updates on Reprising Mad Max and Bane Roles

Tom Hardy is suiting up for another box office run as Venom with this week’s release of Venom: The Last Dance – but is there a future for some of the other iconic roles he’s played? Before Venom, movie fans knew Hardy best from his roles as Batman villain Bane in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, and as “Mad” Max Rockatansky in George Requel film Mad Max: Fury Road. Warner Bros. Pictures has continued to invest in both franchises, with Fury Road getting a spinoff prequel film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, while there are two new Batman films (The Batman: Part II, The Brave and the Bold) in the works, as well as Batman villain team-up movie featuring Bane and Deathstroke the Terminator.

Tom Hardy on Returning as Mad Max

While most fans may think of Tom Hardy as an actor who finishes with a franchise or a role and never looks back, Hardy maintains a surprising level of readiness to return to a franchise, if needed, and (more importantly) if called upon. That is the case with Mad Max – the only thing is, Hardy has heard any chatter about what’s next for the franchise:

“No I haven’t been told anything,” Hardy told ET regarding Mad Max, adding, “But obviously I’d love to do that.”

That answer is only half of what Hardy previously said: the actor may be willing to return as Mad Max, but earlier this year he flat-out told a Forbes reporter “I don’t think that’s happening.”

Tom Hardy on Doing DC’s Bane & Deathstroke Movie

The new DC Universe franchise relaunch is about to begin, with James Gunn’s Creature Commandos series arriving late this year, and Superman (2025) releasing in theaters next summer. With Gunn reinventing the DC brand the screen, and Bane now getting his own feature film, some fans have been recasting Tom Hardy as the character – even going so far as to say Bane & Deathstroke should also team Hardy with Zack Snyder’s DCEU Deathstroke actor, Joe Manganiello.

But while Tom Hardy is just as willing to make a return as Bane, he acknowledged that his role in The Dark Knight Trilogy was its own thing. The new DCU may be looking for a new kind of Bane – and Hardy thinks another actor deserves that shot:

“Oh hell yeah, love to [play Bane again]! But I don’t know if that’s for me. I did my run, you know? Like let someone else have a go!”

The Bane & Deathstroke movie is still early in development – no plot details have yet been revealed, nor is it clear how it will tie into Batman or other DCU heroes or villain projects currently being planned.

Tom Hardy is currently finishing his Venom movie trilogy in Venom: The Last Dance.