The Toxic Avenger barrels into theaters in August, but don’t expect a continuation of the original Toxie’s story. ComicBook caught up with the new film’s director, Macon Blair, and star Peter Dinklage at San Diego Comic Con to discuss the latest installment in the franchise. The Toxic Avenger began as an indie-grindhouse Troma film in the 1980s, and, over four decades, has garnered a devoted cult following, leading to several sequels as well as the property being adapted into an animated series and even a stage musical. While Blair and Dinklage were quick to assure us that the new film maintains the humor, splatter-style gore, and satire fans loved in the 1984 film, they also made it clear that the latest Toxic Avenger is a reboot, not a sequel to the story of the original Toxie, Melvin Junko.
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In the new Toxic Avenger, our hero’s name is Winston Gooze, and while Winston’s a janitor who falls into a vat of toxic waste just like his predecessor, Gooze is a widower and a father to a teenage son, Wade (Jacob Tremblay). Director Macon Blair explained the reason for the change and keeping the two Toxies from interacting.
“In my mind, it’s its own universe,” they said. “That’s why we made him a new character with a new name, so that it wouldn’t feel like we were literally recreating the first one. Because the first one is so singular, and if it’s going to be an exact retelling of that, it, to me, it begs the question, why do it at all?”
Director Macon Blair Sought to “Justify” a Toxic Avenger Reboot with a Fresh Take
Blair went on to discuss striking a balance between paying tribute to the hallmarks of the original, paradigm-setting Toxic Avenger while telling a new story relevant to audiences in 2025. Reboots and decades-later sequels are now a dime a dozen in Hollywood, yet the reasons Blair cites for giving the franchise a clean slate eschew the cash-grabs we’ve now come to expect from studio executives looking to leverage an IP they already own.
“If we could have it sort of be this iconic character with the mop and the tutu and the things that you recognize, but with a new person at the center of it, with a new journey that he’s got to go on, that would be a way to kind of honor the original,” Blair mused. “But also make it feel fresh and justify the fact that we’re doing it.”
Though the new Toxic Avenger has yet to hit theaters, we’re already curious if this new take on Toxie could lead to a Toxic Crusaders team-up. The Toxic Crusaders animated series was a one-season wonder that followed Toxie teaming up with other misfit heroes to combat pollution. While the original series was aimed at a younger audience than the grindhouse, horror-heavy Toxic Avenger films, with the success of anti-hero squads like James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and, most recently, Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, there certainly seems to be a space in the media landscape for an environmentally conscious group of misfits.
Blair claimed to “have no idea” if a Toxic Crusaders team-up is in the works, but he did share that “if anybody wants to do it, then I would love to talk about that.” Here’s hoping.
The Toxic Avengers hits theaters on August 29th.
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