Mad Max 2 may have been in development before the pandemic

Released in 2015, Avalanche's open-world Aussie apocalypse sim Mad Max turned out to be quite good, and it reportedly sold quite well, too. But it never got a sequel: After its launch, Avalanche returned to the Just Cause series, made Rage 2 for Bethesda, and is now working on a '70s smuggling sim called Contraband. But die-hard warriors of the wasteland were given a ray of hope last week when a photo allegedly taken during the development of Mad Max 2 was shared on social media.

"Before times, at @AvalancheSweden in New York, when O'Neil invited me to get scanned to be in Mad Max 2, as a rebel," creative technologist Wendy W. Fok tweeted. "The magic of #photogrammetry, 3D Scanning, & many cameras @MadMaxGame."

The same photo, with the same message, was also shared on Fok's LinkedIn page.

It's not at all ambiguous—Mad Max 2 is right there in the tweet. Even so, it's far from clear that a new Mad Max game is in the works. For one thing, while Fok's "before times" tweet doesn't indicate when the photo was taken, it appeared on the We Designs Twitter feed way back in February 2017. 

That was a full five years ago, and less than two years after the release of Mad Max—a reasonable window for production on a Mad Max sequel to be underway, and more than enough time for the project to be cancelled, especially with the onset of the pandemic.

It may be a bit of a stretch, but it's possible that Fok and her coworkers were actually destined for Rage 2, or were redirected that way at some point—Rage NPCs are essentially Mad Max villains, after all. Whatever the case, it's notable that neither Avalanche nor Mad Max publisher Warner Bros Interactive have rushed to get the tweet taken down. They're clearly not too concerned about the cat being let out of the bag on this one.

So it's possible that a new Mad Max is in development at Avalanche, but is it likely happening, right now? I"m not convinced. Just in case, though, I've reached out to Wok and Avalanche Studios for more information, and will update if I receive a reply.