A remake of The Toxic Avenger is underway and the casting of Peter Dinklage in the signature role is a very promising sign for this fresh take on the property.
Lloyd Kaufman’s low-budget Troma Entertainment is responsible for some very strange movies, but The Toxic Avenger is absolutely one of their weirder contributions to the horror genre during the 1980s. The movie looks at a janitor who gets perpetually kicked down in life, only for an accident with toxic waste to turn him into an unlikely symbol of justice and protector for New Jersey’s fictional community of Tromaville.
Reboots of older properties are becoming common practice, especially with horror movies, but the announcement of a Toxic Avenger remake holds a lot of potential with what could be done with the character and premise in a modern context. Details are still slim, but Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage has been cast as the new Toxic Avenger, which already gives this movie a serious advantage over the original series — here's why.
Like many horror series, The Toxic Avenger is guilty of having a number of sequels with diminishing returns, yet they showcase a number of different portrayals of the Toxic Avenger. Mitch Cohen plays the character in the original film, while Ron Fazio portrays him for Parts II and III, with David Mattey rounding out the lot in Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV. Fazio and Cohen have the best grasp on the character, but they’re all essentially mimicking the same performance, which gets more out of the character’s grotesque look than his depth. Peter Dinklage is an actor with exceptional range who’s been in broader comedies like Pixels and The Knights of Badassdom as well as deeply dramatic work like The Station Agent, his Off-Broadway production of Richard III, or his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones. The Toxic Avenger wouldn’t be casting Dinklage if they weren’t going to take advantage of the actor’s wide range of capabilities and his ability to play both empathetic and loathed characters.
The original Toxic Avenger movies make the Toxic Avenger’s human counterpart, Melvin Ferd, the janitor at a health club. Dinklage has played such complex characters that it’d be easy to see this setting evolve so Ferd is now the brilliant, but unappreciated janitor at a research facility or laboratory. Dinklage’s height is also another departure, which adds an interesting wrinkle to the Toxic Avenger’s transformation and if he’ll remain the same size or feature Dinklage in more intensive practical prosthetics.
The Toxic Avenger reboot may also really embrace how this is an odd horror and superhero hybrid story, rather than fixate on the innate silliness of it all. The original Toxic Avenger has different actors play both Melvin and Toxie, as well as a third performer to do the creature’s voice. Dinklage is talented enough to handle all of these duties, which should make the character’s metamorphosis more rewarding, too. Dinklage recent work alongside Elle Fanning in the post-apocalyptic I Think We’re Alone also gives off the same energy that’s present between the Toxic Avenger and his love interest, Sara, which is more prominent in the sequels. Dinklage’s skills guarantee that he’ll able to handle whatever angle of The Toxic Avenger that the filmmakers want to make a priority.
