Although The Boys might be infamous for its gross-out humor, The Toxic Avenger’s upcoming remake will give the series a run for its money. The Toxic Avenger franchise is a tough one to explain. The series began life as a blackly comedic splatter movie by the independent studio Troma back in 1985, only to become more popular than anything else that the proudly tasteless studio has ever produced. The Toxic Avenger went on to spawn sequels, a musical adaptation, a children’s TV show spinoff, and even a comic book series from Marvel.

Even though The Toxic Avenger was originally an intentionally gross, low-rent affair, the franchise ended up becoming a genuine cult phenomenon. Initially, The Toxic Avenger’s 2023 remake seemed like it would be the perfect way to extend this unlikely cult classic’s success. Like every other major superhero, Toxie was set to enjoy a big-screen reboot complete with a more famous cast and a far larger budget. However, the movie’s long, troubled production history dragged out for over a decade, and the finished film eventually ended up searching for a distributor for over a year.

2025’s Toxic Avenger Remake Could Be The Grossest Superhero Spoof Ever

Troma’s Original 1985 Movie Was Infamously Disgusting

In 2023, The Toxic Avenger played at Fantastic Fest and early reviews suggested it was the goriest, most gratuitously nasty superhero spoof since The Boys. Few of The Boys’ sickest jokes can rival the most shocking moments in the original movie, so it was no surprise that director Macon Blair’s re-imagining of Toxie’s story was even nastier. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore director Blair’s signature blend of jaw-dropping ultraviolence and gasp-inducing, pitch-black humor seemed like a match made in heaven for the franchise, but then disaster struck.

The Toxic Avenger could not find a distributor between late 2023 and early 2025 and seemed destined to become a piece of lost media. Fortunately, Variety reported that Cineverse plans to release an unrated cut of The Toxic Avenger in 2025, meaning the brutally subversive superhero parody will see the light of day later this year. Per Cineverse CEO Chris McGurk, “This is the kind of movie that major studios are averse to release because it dares to push boundaries.” As early reviews of its remake noted its intense gore and gross-out imagery, this seems like it could be an understatement.

2025’s Toxic Avenger Remake Has An Incredible Cast To Rival The Boys

Peter Dinklage and Elijah Wood Appear In The Re-imagining

Like The Boys, The Toxic Avenger’s 2025 remake has a starry cast including Peter Dinklage as the тιтle character, Elijah Wood as a major villain, and both Jacob Tremblay and Kevin Bacon in supporting roles. Although The Boys’ celebrity cameos are the stuff of legend, this impressive lineup proves that The Toxic Avenger’s remake will be a more polished affair than the original movie. 1985’s The Toxic Avenger is a self-parodic gore-fest that earns a lot of laughs due to its sheer tasteless audacity, but still feels amateurish in some places.

While this contributes to the movie’s slipshod charm and ensures that its mean-spirited gags never feel too genuinely unpleasant to laugh at, it is a unique tone that would be tough to replicate with a bigger budget. As such, it is good news that The Toxic Avenger’s remake seemingly brings a level of slickness and professionalism to the chaos of the original movie. Meanwhile, Cineverse’s biggest recent hit, Terrifier 3, proves the distributor isn’t afraid to back potentially offensive, shocking movies, and this gamble can pay off for them at the box office.

The Toxic Avenger Is A Different Kind Of Superhero Parody Compared To The Boys

Troma’s Original Spoof Had A Far Broader Sense of Humor

While both franchises might be superhero parodies, it is worth noting that The Toxic Avenger and The Boys are very different in terms of tone. While The Boys takes characters like Billy Butcher, Starlight, and Hughie seriously amidst all the gore gags and shocking content, the original Toxic Avenger movies are much more broadly parodic. 1985’s The Toxic Avenger almost feels like an odd cocktail of a Naked Gun movie, a Superman movie, and a particularly gory slasher, merging absurd, playful comedy with shockingly nasty gore effects.

The result is tonally unique, and it will be interesting to see how Blair’s movie recreates this live-action cartoon tone in 2025’s The Toxic Avenger remake. That said, despite their differences, The Boys undoubtedly helped pave the way for the remake’s release. With boundary-pushing content like Love Sausage’s appearances and season 3’s infamously grotesque opening scene, The Boys proved superhero spoof viewers would sit through a lot of gore for a laugh. Now, it is up to The Toxic Avenger’s long-awaited remake to outdo even The Boys when it comes to crafting a truly shocking superhero parody .

Source: Variety