The remake of The Toxic Avenger has officially been rated R due to graphic nudity and gore. Released in 1984 to little fanfare, The Toxic Avenger tells the story of a meek teenager who falls into a vat of toxic waste and becomes a monstrous superhero. The film has since become a cult classic, with many praising its wild and campy B-movie tone and its extreme violence.
Universal officially announced in 2019 that a remake of The Toxic Avenger was moving ahead at Legendary Entertainment, with original creators Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman returning as producers. The Toxic Avenger remake is written and directed by Macon Blair, best known for his directorial debut, I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore. Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage stars in the film, previously promising that the upcoming movie will be "over-the-top" and "crazy." In addition to Dinklage, the film also stars Elijah Wood, Kevin Bacon, Jacob Tremblay, and Julia Davis.
In a new report from THR that is sure to please long-time fans of the franchise, the new Toxic Avenger remake has earned an R-rating from the Motion Picture Association. The film earned the rating for "strong violence and gore, language throughout, sexual references and brief graphic nudity," which matches the rating and content of the original. With its new R-rating, The Toxic Avenger is among Deadpool, Logan, The Suicide Squad, and Blade in terms of adult-oriented superhero fare.
The R-rating for the film suggests that the remake of The Toxic Avenger might be closer in tone to that of the original than was previously thought. When the Toxic Avenger remake was first conceived in 2010, producers claimed that the film would be a family-friendly PG-13 adventure, which surely wouldn't have gone over well with fans. Although capturing the campy essence of the original Toxic Avenger will be difficult, considering it was made for a minimal amount of money, the newly-announced rating hints that Blair's remake will be faithful to the original, at least in terms of its graphic content. With Kaufman previously revealing that the script for The Toxic Avenger remake is better than the original, fans of the character might be in for a real treat.
Although R-rated superhero movies are frequently considered too risky of a proposition, films like Deadpool and Logan proved that adult-skewed superhero films could be huge successes. It remains to be seen how The Toxic Avenger will fare at the box office, but it should be noted that, despite Dinklage's star power, the film does lack the box office draw of actors like Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. While a trailer for the film has yet to be released, fans of the original can now be confident that the remake of The Toxic Avenger will be just as wild and graphic as the 1984 cult classic.
Source: THR