Everything We Know About the Toxic Avenger Remake

Back in 1984, Troma Entertainment brought the world The Toxic Avenger (watch it HERE), a film about “the first superhero from New Jersey.” That film spawned a franchise, leading to The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989), The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989), Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2000), a stage musical, and an animated series called Toxic Crusaders. For a long time, we’ve been hearing that Troma wanted to make a Toxic Avenger 5 – but instead doing that, they have loaned out the rights to Legendary Pictures, allowing them to make a remake of the original film that’s set to reach theatres on August 29th, courtesy of Cineverse. In anticipation of the film’s long-awaited release, we have put together a list of Everything We Know About the Toxic Avenger Remake… and here we go:

WRITER / DIRECTOR

At the helm of this new take on The Toxic Avenger is Macon Blair, who is best known to many as an actor, due to his roles in the likes of Murder Party, Blue Ruin, Green Room, Oppenheimer, and more. He made his directorial debut with the 2017 comedy thriller I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore.

The original film centered on a dorky fellow named Melvin Junko, who worked as a janitor at health club in the town of Tromaville, New Jersey. When a prank gone wrong ends with Melvin taking a dive into a barrel of toxic waste, he’s transformed into the hulking, deformed hero known as the Toxic Avenger, who sets out to get revenge on the people who wronged Melvin, and to clean up the crime-riddled streets of Tromaville.

Blair’s take on the Toxie concept centers on Winston Gooze, a stereotypical weakling who works as a janitor at Garb-X health club and is diagnosed with a terminal illness that can only be cured by an expensive treatment that his greedy, power hungry employer refuses to pay for. After deciding to take matters into his own hands and rob his company, Winston falls into a pit of toxic waste and is transformed into a deformed monster that sets out to do good and get back at all the people who have wronged him.

Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz produced the film with Legendary Entertainment. When Dread Central asked him what level of input he wanted to have on the remake, Kaufman said, “Macon Blair knows Troma better than I do. He’s seen everything. He’s seen the cartoon, he’s seen the Halloween special, he’s seen everything. And he loves our movies like Troma’s War and Terror Firmer. I’ve read the script and it’s better than the original and I leave it to him. If I’m called upon, I’d be happy to jump in. I learned on the musical to leave the creative to the creative. I learned to let them ask so if they want me, I’m there. … If (Legendary) let(s) Macon Blair direct it, I think it will be terrific. He knows the Troma sense of humor, the combination of slapstick and satire with the environmental theme.“

CAST

Peter Dinklage takes on the role of Winston Gooze and is joined in the cast by Kevin Bacon as villainous corporate overlord Bob Garbinger; Elijah Wood as Bob’s brother Fritz Garbinger, who is described as “sort of Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Danny DeVito Penguin mixed together”; a group of lunatics / musicians called the Killer Nutz, who are “a rock and roll group where their presentation is theatrical evil, like KISS or Alice Cooper, but their moonlight gig is professional assassins”; Taylour Paige as investigative reporter / vigilante detective JJ Doherty; Jacob Tremblay as Winston’s stepson Wade; Jonny Coyne as a “shadowy criminal figure”; Sarah Niles as a “corrupt city official”; Julia Davis as an unspecified character; and Blair as a guy named Dennis.

According to The Illuminerdi, the main villain is Bob Garbinger – Leonine hair and eerie plastic surgery. Evil head of the shady company Garb X. He has no regard for the well being of anyone but himself and embarks on a murderous spree to become as powerful as Toxie. His ego is bolstered by his standing amongst the towns official but in reality he lives in fear of the underworld gang he’s indebted to.

Bringing the original Toxic Avenger to the screen was a collaborative effort. Mark Torgl played Melvin Junko, then Mitch Cohen took over the role when the character became Toxie (and Kenneth Kessler provided the voice). There’s a similar situation here, as Entertainment Weekly revealed that Dinklage doesn’t actually physically play Toxie. Instead, “Luisa Guerreiro, an actor and movement artist, provides the physical performance of Toxie underneath all that makeup and costume.” Dinklage does still provide the character’s voice after Winston becomes Toxie. 

Blair told Entertainment Weekly that Winston is “singularly unqualified to be a hero. He’s not especially brave, he’s not especially crafty, but he has his heart in the right place, and he starts taking it to the limit when he’s pushed into a corner.” The Toxic Avenger design was kept under wraps for a long time, and Blair said “His look is closer to (The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie), and in terms of color palette we drew from the cartoon actually. But it’s practical effects. You can see all the goopy little boils and stuff like that. And we definitely stayed true to some of the really iconic elements: the tutu that’s melted onto his body, the janitor’s mop as his super weapon.“

The look of the character has since been revealed, along with images of several of the film’s other characters.

PRODUCTION & DELAY

The Toxic Avenger remake was filmed in Bulgaria – and fans have been waiting a long time to see it, because filming wrapped way back in 2021. After a long stretch of silence, a teaser trailer was unveiled near the end of 2023:

That was around the time it had its world premiere screening at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. After that screening, a lot of very positive first reactions made their way online. Viewers called it super gory, super silly, delightful, fun, twisted, gross, heartwarming, consistently insane, hilarious, goofy as hell, awesome, gnarly… pretty much every description you would hope to hear come out of a screening of a movie like this. And many of the people who got to see it said it remained faithful to its Troma roots.

Unfortunately, many distributors deemed the film to be “unreleaseable” due to its gore and graphic content. Fans were left wondering if they would ever have the chance to see the movie at all. Asked about the film’s status by ComicBook.com, Dinklage said, “I don’t know. I do want it to get out there into the world because it was a really big hit at Fantastic Fest in Austin, and Macon Blair, the writer/director who is also in The Thicket … He’s incredible. He’s one of my favorite people and favorite artists. So hopefully it will have its day in the toxic sun.“

Thankfully, at the start of 2025, Cineverse stepped in to acquire the distribution rights with the intention of giving the film a wide release, putting it on track for an August 29th theatrical release, kicking off Labor Day weekend. Macon Blair made a statement to Variety: “I’m beyond grateful to the team behind The Toxic Avenger who were so supportive and steady-handed as we searched for the perfect distribution partner for our film. It’s so cool that folks will have the chance to see this in theaters, it’s a fun rowdy movie you wanna see with a crowd. Mutant hero smashes bad guys with a mop: perfect entertainment for the whole family! Our goal was always to preserve the heart and spirit of the original Toxie (which was seared into my brain at a very young age) and try to make something that Troma fans would dig and at the same time do something with the character that feels fresh. Lloyd and Michael at Troma have been a blast to work with, absolutely everyone at Legendary are stars, and I can’t wait to start working with the champs at Cinverse to bring this version of Toxie to fans new and old.“

Cineverse chairman and CEO Chris McGurk added, “The Toxic Avenger isn’t just a great film; it’s an important one. Peter Dinklage’s transformative performance and Macon Blair’s fearless direction deliver a story that speaks to the anxieties of our time with outrageous humor and unflinching creativity. This is the kind of movie that major studios are averse to release because it dares to push boundaries, but Cineverse is rooted in championing bold, uncompromising storytelling. We believe audiences are ready – and eager – for films like this to take center stage.“

Soon after, another teaser trailer was released:

The film has received an R rating for “strong violence and gore, language throughout, sexual references and brief graphic nudity“ – and the gore includes a moment that has been referred to as “the butt guts scene.” Sound editor Casey Genton told Slash Film, “(The Toxic Avenger remake is) a really funny movie. Macon Blair, the director, I think did a really good job with it. Everybody was a dream on the film. I’m so surprised — for me personally, I had not seen the original Toxic Avenger until I had done this film. And it’s a huge cult classic, and I know people are really excited about it. When they have tested it, fans of the film have been over the moon with the film. […] It’s pretty out there. I think it’s a different crack. They’re giving the fans what they want, for sure. There’s no lack of — I know everybody references the little kid’s head getting run over and stuff (in the original). I think that there was an iteration of the film that didn’t have enough of that, so they made a very — I don’t want to ruin it. But it has, it’s been nicknamed the ‘butt guts’ scene, and it’s probably the best way to match that ‘head getting run over’ energy that everybody’s looking for. So it’s in line with the fan base, and I think it’s hilarious.“

In March, Cineverse decided to do some early marketing by sending the new film’s version of Toxie down the Chicago River on a boat, an appearance that coincided with the river being dyed green for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Video of Toxie’s boat ride can be seen in the X embeds below.

That’s everything we know about the Toxic Avenger remake right now, but with the release still five months away, we’re bound to learn more as the days tick by. In the meantime, keep scrolling down to see more of the images and promotional materials that have come out so far: