“The Toxic Avenger” mops up armed extremists in new teaser trailer

The latest teaser for The Toxic Avenger doesn't showcase the reboot's starry cast, but it does give a taste of the bloody mayhem to come, with the film's "freaky folk hero" dismantling a group of armed, hostage-taking extremists called the Nasty Lads at a restaurant.

The Toxic Avenger franchise boasts four films, an animated TV show, a Marvel comic book series, a video game, and even a stage musical. What the franchise could never claim, however, is the participation of Hollywood stars — but that's changed thanks to writer-director Macon Blair's new movie. Produced by Legendary Entertainment (the folks responsible for the new Dune movies and the cinematic MonsterVerse), the film stars Elijah Wood, Kevin Bacon, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, and Peter Dinklage, the latter of whom plays the titular crime fighter, a low-level janitor at a chemical factory named Winston Gooze.

Legendary Pictures Peter Dinklage in 'The Toxic Avenger'

"There is a terrible industrial accident that renders him a mutant and an outcast, but also gives him some super strength and super abilities that sets him on a path of being an unlikely vigilante in this downward-spiraling society," Blair recently explained to EW. "Similar to the original Toxic Avenger, he's singularly unqualified to be a hero. He's not especially brave, he's not especially crafty, but he has his heart in the right place, and he starts taking it to the limit when he's pushed into a corner."

Legendary Pictures Elijah Wood in 'The Toxic Avenger'

Wood plays a villain named Fritz Garbinger with blackened teeth, panda eyes, and long tendrils of hair sprouting from a mostly bald pate. What would they say back in the Shire?

Blair told us that Wood's appearance in the film is "sort of Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Danny DeVito Penguin mixed together." He added, "The look came about by discussions I had with our designers and with Elijah himself. I wanted it to feel like a Peter Sellers type of performance where he just goes invisible. The idea is that you forget that it's the Elijah that you know from Lord of the Rings or anything else."

Legendary Pictures 'The Toxic Avenger'

Blair has a long history with "Toxie." Low-budget production company Troma, which produced the original Toxic Avenger films, was a major inspiration to the filmmaker growing up.

"My group of friends were starting to make our own movies on VHS. Everything we did was a rip-off of Monty Python and early Troma movies," he said. Blair compared making this new version of The Toxic Avenger to "getting back to those early days with my buddies, but getting to do it with f---ing Peter Dinklage and Kevin Bacon. Very surreal."

Watch the latest teaser above.

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