George Miller is astounded by the enduring popularity of the 'Mad Max' franchise.

The 79-year-old director has helmed the new dystopian prequel 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' and explained that he never expected it to be captivating audiences over four decades on from the release of the original movie.

Asked if he expected the appeal of 'Mad Max' to span generations, George told IndieWire's Filmmaker Toolkit podcast: "Never!

"It's best expressed in John Lennon's notion that life is what happens when you're making other plans."

Miller explained that the demands of 1979's 'Mad Max' had put him off from directing again and it was only when he began to gauge the world's reaction to the film that he was convinced otherwise.

He said: "I began to realise that inadvertently, we had hit on something archetypal.

"In Japan, he was a samurai. In Scandinavia, he was a lone Viking. In France, they saw 'Mad Max' as a Western on wheels."

The filmmaker explained that 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' – which features Anya Taylor-Joy in the title role – follows many of the story conventions that are seen in Western and medieval tales.

The 'Witches of Eastwick' director said: "They're basically a reflection on who we are today and on the ways that those same behaviour patterns are pretty constant in human beings across all time and space.

"The same stories, the same patterns are very, very common. So you can find those analogies throughout history that you see in 'Furiosa'.

"It's very much about Furiosa and how she gets a crash course in becoming a warrior purely out of the necessity to achieve what she wants to achieve and survive."