How many directors can go from doing Mad Max to Happy Feet then back again? George Miller is a visionary director who basically launched the modern post-apocalyptic film genre that movies like Doomsday tried to clone, and he's exactly the man who can make Max relevant again. Would fans like Mel Gibson back? Maybe, but too much time has passed for him to play the character. That doesn't matter for the man in the director's chair however. As for the director - he does have some stiff competition, but J.J. Abrams is a divisive filmmaker (see the Star Trek reboot), and Miller has tons more experience than someone like Alan Taylor, or even Joss Whedon.