EW cover offers first look at Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron in 'Mad Max' reboot

LOS ANGELES, June 25 (UPI) -- Move over, Mel Gibson.

Entertainment Weekly's latest cover offers a first look at Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron as the co-headliners of the highly anticipated Mad Max reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road, an update to the 1979 Australian film and its three installments.

Hardy, in Gibson's former role as hardened wasteland warrior Max Rockatansky, told EW that filming in the Namibian desert helped him prepare for the film.

"It was mental in a brilliant way," Hardy said. "You have no concrete, no coffee shops. We were in the middle of a sandpit."

Theron shaved her head for the role of the intimidating Imperator Furiosa, who sports a mechanical arm.

Theron told Screenrant last year that her character, a new one, will defy expectations.

"I think for me originally when they were like, 'Oh, Mad Max.' I was like, 'Uh, I'm not going to play the f***ing girl for 'Mad Max.' Then I read it and I was like, 'Oh, 'Mad Max.' I feel sorry for you,'" she said.

Fury Road hits theaters in May 2015.