This may come as little surprise, but the upcoming reboot of The Toxic Avenger has been rated R. The rating for the reboot, which comes from Legendary, is for "strong violence and gore, language throughout, sexual references and brief graphic nudity." That sounds a lot like the original movie from Troma Entertainment that was released in 1984 and has since maintained a large cult following.
Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, who produced the previous films and co-directed the original, are producing the reboot for Legendary. The "contemporary reimagining" of the Monster Hero is written and directed by Macon Blair (I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore). Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) stars as a new version of Toxie with an origin story that's a bit different from the original film. The reboot also stars Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Elijah Wood, and Kevin Bacon.
In the original Toxic Avenger, a young man named Melvin (Mark Torgl) falls victim to a mean prank put on by a group of bullies at a health club. Distraught and humiliated, Melvin runs off and falls straight into a barrel of toxic waste, transforming him into a mutant with superhuman strength. While the backstory is a bit different for Dinklage's Winston, the result is the same with toxic chemicals turning an otherwise nonviolent person into a the vigilante that the crime-ridden city needs. You can read a synopsis for the new movie below.
"Set in a fantasy world following Winston, 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."
The Toxic Avenger Movies Have Always Featured Over-the-Top Violence
Troma has always been known to push the envelope with its films, and that was certainly true for The Toxic Avenger and its various sequels. There have been rumors for years of a reboot happening, and some fans had concerns that it would be given a PG-13 rating, presenting a film that could be seen as a much softer version of the classic movie. Most fan seem to agree that The Toxic Avenger thrives best with an R rating, as Toxie was such a big fan of over-the-top violence over the course of four previous live-action films.
With that said, The Toxic Avenger had previously inspired the cartoon series Toxic Crusaders, so Toxie has gone family friendly before. That might have been weighed in when it came to rebooting The Toxic Avenger with a new live-action adaptation for theaters. Ultimately, it seems that the original film's creators agreed with writer-director Macon Blair that the reboot shouldn't hold back on anything, keeping it in line with the franchise's previous films.
The Toxic Avenger reboot doesn't have a premiere date but is expected to release this year.