Movie and TV star Peter Dinklage has been tied to a remake of a classic dark comedy The Toxic Avenger for a while now, but nothing concrete has surfaced…yet. That could soon change as Dinklage recently offered an update on the project.
In a recent interview with Collider to publicize his new movie, She Came to Me, Dinklage was asked about the much-anticipated though slow-moving project.
“Oh, yeah. Hopefully it’s coming out soon. My friend Macon Blair wrote it. I love him now that I know him as a friend. But as a huge fan of his before then it’s not really a horror. It’s just sort of crazy over the top… It’s a violent, road picture kind of thing we did in Bulgaria a couple of years ago. So looking at making another one. Like Rebecca, who I just want to keep working with. Part of the tribe. He’s part of the tribe.”
This is great news for Toxic Avenger fans. Not only is one in the can, but he wants to make another one as well. There are actually five Toxic Avenger movies, staring with the original in 1984 and ending with the fourth film, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger in 2000. Apparently the new script is better than the original, at least according to Troma Entertainment president Lloyd Kaufman, who heads the company that put out the first film.
“[Writer and director] 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.”
The Toxic Avenger is about the exploits of Melvin Ferd, a janitor who gets transformed into a mutant superhero after he gets exposed to, you guessed it, toxic chemicals. They’re cult classics known for campy content and gore, but there was also a children’s cartoon and video game.
Dinklage has been attached to the project since 2021, but the reboot was originally announced in 2010. It’s gone through a number of iterations and stars over the years. It was originally going to be a PG-13 remake, but that idea was scrapped in favor of something more graphic. At one point, Arnold Schwarzenegger was tapped to star but he dropped out to make another Terminator movie.