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Anya Taylor-Joy’s Criminally Underrated Sci-Fi Spectacle Becomes a Streaming Hit 2 Years Later

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The release date for Anya Taylor-Joy‘s first new streaming series since the breakout hit The Queen’s Gambit is right around the corner. Taylor-Joy suddenly found herself in an enviable position after the release and success of the Netflix limited series, which remains one of the streamer’s most-watched titles to this day. Taylor-Joy had been knocking on the door of success for several years leading up to The Queen’s Gambit, having delivered memorable performances in movies such as Thoroughbreds and Split. After she became a household name thanks to the Netflix series, she quickly landed the biggest role of her career — the titular part in one of the most anticipated franchise films of the last decade.

The movie survived a difficult production and debuted theatrically in 2024. However, much to everyone’s surprise, it was a non-starter at the box office. Experts decided that the audience simply didn’t care for prequels and spin-offs, citing the failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story and Lightyear as an example. This doesn’t explain how the Star Wars prequel trilogy and the Hobbit movies succeeded, despite negative response from fans and critics. Taylor-Joy’s movie opened to rave reviews, but even the most glowing reactions compared it unfavorably to its predecessor, which changed the face of action cinema in 2015.

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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz
Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive?
The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix

🔥Mad Max

🌧️Blade Runner

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🏜️Dune

🚀Star Wars

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01

You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do?
The first instinct is often the truest one.





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02

In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely?
What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.





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03

What kind of threat keeps you up at night?
Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.





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04

How do you deal with authority you don’t trust?
Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.





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05

Which environment could you actually endure long-term?
Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.





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06

Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart?
The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.





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07

Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all?
Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.





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08

What would actually make survival worth it?
Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.





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Your Fate Has Been Calculated
You’d Survive In…

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

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The Resistance, Zion

The Matrix

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.

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  • You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
  • You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
  • You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
  • The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.


The Wasteland

Mad Max

The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.

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  • You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
  • You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
  • You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
  • In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.


Los Angeles, 2049

Blade Runner

You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

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  • You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
  • In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
  • You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
  • In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.


Arrakis

Dune

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

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  • Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
  • You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
  • Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
  • In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.


A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Star Wars

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

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  • You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
  • You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
  • You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
  • In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

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The Infamous Box Office Bomb Was Critically Acclaimed

We’re talking, of course, about Mad Max: Fury Road and its 2024 follow-up, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The prequel was directed by George Miller, with Taylor-Joy stepping in to play the role that Charlize Theron made her own in Fury Road. Furiosa didn’t feature Mad Max at all, and perhaps that was one of the reasons why it underperformed at the box office. The movie grossed around $175 million worldwide against a reported budget of nearly $170 million, well below Fury Road‘s $350 million-plus worldwide haul. Furiosa is now sitting at a “Certified Fresh” 90% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Retroactively enriching Fury Road with greater emotional heft if not quite matching it in propulsive throttle, Furiosa is another glorious swerve in mastermind George Miller’s breathless race towards cinematic Valhalla.” In the run-up to Taylor-Joy’s new Apple TV series Lucky, which premieres on July 15, Furiosa saw a spike in viewership on the domestic iTunes chart this week, proving that it remains popular among its fans. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.


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Release Date
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May 24, 2024

Runtime

149 minutes

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Director

George Miller

Writers
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George Miller, Nico Lathouris

Producers

Doug Mitchell, George Miller

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