Following an obscured first glimpse of the "freaky folk hero" of the title and a batch of promo stills spotlighting some of his supporting players, Legendary Entertainment has finally given us a look at Toxie in action in this first red-band teaser trailer for the upcoming remake of The Toxic Avenger!
The footage keeps Toxie's face hidden, unfortunately, but we do get to see the deformed vigilante dispense some ultra-violent justice to a group of villains known as the Nasty Lads, who have taken over a local diner in a scene that appears to be directly inspired by the character's introduction in the original.
Based on what we see here, this relaunch has managed to retain a lot of the twisted charm and anarchic humor of the Troma classic.
Director Macon Blair recently revealed that it's not actually Game of Thrones alum Peter Dinklage under the prosthetics.
“It’s not Peter,” the filmmaker explains. “It’s a tiny British actress named Luisa Guerreiro. She’s Portuguese. A complete badass. 110 degrees, 30 pounds of foam makeup. Motors all over her face to move the eyebrows and stuff like that."
Check out the teaser below, and let us know what you think in the comments section.
“While the original film (which premiered in 1984 – almost 40 years ago!) followed the fate of Melvin Ferd Junko III (Mitch Cohen), who goes from zero to toxic hero in a case of bullying gone awry, Macon Blair’s contemporary take follows a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength all his own.
Peter Dinklage stars as downtrodden janitor Winston Gooze who, after falling into a vat of toxic waste, becomes none other than The Toxic Avenger. This timely reimagining is up to its eyeballs in environmental themes as Winston goes up against the evil forces of greed and corruption to save his son, his friends, and his community. Even as this story exists on its own terms, the spirit undoubtedly remains connected to the original. Troma fans old and new will be pleased to know that the film has been rated “R” for violence and gore – as per Troma tradition.”
The Toxic Avenger was first introduced in the 1984 movie of the same name from indie studio Troma Entertainment, and has since gone on to achieve cult status with several sequels, a comic book series and even a short-lived 1991 children's animated show called The Toxic Crusaders.
The Toxic Avenger also stars Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne, Elijah Wood, and Kevin Bacon.
No theatrical release date has been announced.