A new 'Toxic Avenger' emerges from the ooze
[August 27, 2025]
By ANDREW DALTON
SAN DIEGO (AP) — “The Toxic Avenger” got stuck in the sludge.
Director Macon Blair's reboot of the classic 1980s cult superhero
franchise from Troma Entertainment was shot four years ago and had its
festival premiere two years ago, but for a long time, no theatrical
distributors would bite.
It had bona fide stars, including Peter Dinklage as the tutu-wearing,
mop-wielding, chemically-altered title vigilante, and Kevin Bacon and
Elijah Wood as a villainous duo. But the buzz was it was just too
weirdly violent for theaters.
“I was definitely anxious, but I never felt like it was going to be
doomed,” said Blair, an actor in films including “Oppenheimer” and
“Green Room” who previously directed 2017's “I Don't Feel at Home in
This World Anymore.”
Now, Toxie, as he's commonly known, has emerged. Production company
Legendary Entertainment struck a deal with Cineverse earlier this year
to give it an unrated theater run in all its gory glory starting Friday.
Last month at Comic-Con International in San Diego, it was given a
packed, rapturous panel in the massive, storied Hall H, as if it were a
Marvel movie. The cast and creators sat with The Associated Press for an
interview during the convention.
“To think that this is where it would have its sort of blast off moment
is not something I I ever would have expected,” Blair told the AP. “I
would have been happy to wait eight years if that’s what the result is
going to be.”
Taylour Paige, who plays a whistleblower who teams with Toxie against
Bacon’s nuclear-polluter villain, was more blunt in her description of
the long wait.
“It’s like being constipated for a really long time,” said Paige, to big
laughs from the rest of the cast. “Because for years you’re like, “When
am I gonna go?”
The film is a stew of tones and genres like few others. It's equal parts
splatter, warmth and comedy. Its vibes are very indie, but it often
feels big and super-heroic.
The film was a shift from Blair's other work as both actor and director.
“The idea of doing something that could be more of like a live-action
cartoon was really exciting,” he said. “I just kind of wanted it to be
very over the top, very ridiculous and, in an affectionate way, very in
tune with the vibe of Lloyd’s original.”
Lloyd is Lloyd Kaufman, creator of the franchise that began with the
1984 film and spawned three sequels, a stage musical, a comic-book
series, a video game and an animated TV show.
But Kaufman said not until now did the real “Toxic Avenger” appear. His
original never got to be as graphic as he wanted it to be because of the
censors of the era.
“Macon talked about eight years, I had to wait 40 years to finally see
this,” he said. “The original got chopped up, mercilessly.”
He knew from the start that Blair had the right sensibility.
[to top of second column]
|
Peter Dinklage poses for a portrait to promote "The Toxic Avenger"
during Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 24, 2025, in San
Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
 “This Toxic Avenger by Mr. Macon is
better than the original,” Kaufman said. “Seriously, it is, it’s a
real film. It’s not just a cartoony thing.”
The film's earnest, family-centered plot features the “Game of
Thrones” star Dinklage as Winston Gooze, a sad, down-on-his-luck
janitor and single step-dad trying to win the approval of his
stepson, played by Jacob Tremblay, who co-starred as a child with
Brie Larson in her Oscar turn 2015's “Room.”
An accident leaves Gooze mutated into the title hero, who is
at-first horrified by the buckets of blood brought on by his
supercharged mop, before embracing the righteous violence.
“He’s a very kind man and trying to do the right thing,” Dinklage
said. “He’s a stepfather, he’s lost his wife, he’s gained her son,
and Winston has to walk eggshells because of that.”
After Toxie's transformation, Dinklage provided only the voice while
Luisa Guerreiro performs in a suit that fit the practical-effects
style Blair insisted on embracing.
Tremblay was just 14 when the film was shot. He's 18 now for the
release.
“Honestly, I mean it feels like it went by really quickly,” Tremblay
said.
Wood's character Fritz is ashen, hunched over and mostly bald with
long strings of hair. He has notes of Danny DeVito’s Penguin from
“Batman Returns,” Riff Raff from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and
Wormtongue from Wood’s own “Lord of the Rings” films. In other
words, it may be the least Elijah Wood role’s he’s ever had.
Blair sent a concept drawing to Wood when he sent the script.
“I immediately fell in love with it and thought, ‘Well, if we can
achieve anything similar to this physically, it’ll be fantastic,’”
Wood said. “I don’t get the opportunity to, to sort of transform
like that often, so to play a character that is so bizarre and has a
strange voice and physicality was awesome.”
Blair straddled two worlds during postproduction as filming on
“Oppenheimer,” in which he played lawyer Lloyd Garrison, began.
“I’d shoot that during the days and then in the evenings I would go
to the soundstage and do the sound mix into the night,” he said.
“But at the same time it felt like an embarrassment of riches as far
as projects I was getting to do at the time, so I would have let it
go forever.”
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
