Entertainment Weekly‘s current issue is devoted to all things apocalyptic, and really what better to have as a cover story than the new Mad Max, Fury Road.  

We’ve had leaked photos of some of the vehicles in transit to their shooting location in the middle of the Australian desert, and one character image of leading man Tom Hardy.  But EW’s cover image is Tom and a shorn-headed Charlize Theron, in their dirt and grit glory, making me even more excited.  Something kind of wonderful about this reboot is the man behind the original trilogy George Miller, is behind this new chapter in the story.

Here is a bit of EW’s story:

(In an exclusive interview with) Miller about what prompted his return to the beloved franchise: a story that popped into his head fully formed back in 2000 but that took more than a decade to realize. This time, Tom Hardy takes over for Gibson as the very damaged road warrior Max Rockatansky, while a shaved-headed Charlize Theron plays a bad-ass commander named Imperator Furiosa. The stars spent a harrowing seven months in the desert of Namibia to shoot the film. “It was mental in a brilliant way,” says Hardy. “You have no concrete, no coffee shops. We were in the middle of a sandpit.”

The rugged production suited Miller and his singular vision to reboot the Mad Max franchise. “I wanted to tell a linear story–a chase that starts as the movie begins and continues for 110 minutes,” says the Australian writer-director. Fury Road features few digital effects and even less dialogue, he explains. “In this crucible of very intense action, the characters are revealed.”

One thing the new series WON’T have is Tina Turner.