Macon Blair Says The Toxic Avenger Is “98% the Same” — Why It Took Two Years and Which Scene Got Cut
Macon Blair says his remake of The Toxic Avenger is arriving in theaters largely unchanged from its 2023 premiere, while Cineverse has stepped in to give the film a theatrical push. The movie opens Aug. 29 and stars Peter Dinklage and Kevin Bacon.
- Release picked up by Cineverse for a theatrical roll-out.
- Blair says the current cut is “98% the same” as the Fantastic Fest premiere.
- Several scenes were cut before that premiere for pacing; one favorite flashback was removed.
- The film is a Troma remake and opens in U.S. theaters on Aug. 29.
Why the long wait for a public release?
Blair says the delay came because buyers were cautious. “I think broadly, it was just that the places that normally buy movies had a hard time seeing its potential as a mainstream crowd-pleaser,” he said. However, he added that the pause allowed Cineverse to pick up the film and plan a theatrical release rather than sending it straight to streaming.
What changed between 2023 and now?
According to Blair, not much. He said the theater version is almost the same as the one that premiered two years ago: “There are a few shots that have been adjusted, and a few things that have been added, but I would say 98% the same thing. There are little extra details added in certain shots, just to make them a little more fun, but no new scenes or new cuts.”
Deleted scenes and a lost flashback
Blair said the scenes that were removed were cut early, before the premiere, and were taken out for pacing. “I really miss them, but we made the right choice to cut them out. I think the movie plays better when it’s snappy. But they were hard scenes to let go. I really liked the performances in them, and I’m hopeful that maybe there’ll be a DVD edition at some point where people can see them.”
He described one cut he particularly liked: “Toxie gets knocked on the head, and the screen goes black, and he kind of goes back in time for a minute, and has a scene where he is interacting with his wife when she was alive,” Blair said. “It was this weird left turn, and then the fight picks up again.
“I think audiences were like, Is the fight over? What are we doing here? I loved it, but I understood the need to lose it. It was a very sweet scene between Peter and this actress named Rebecca O’Mara, who gave a really lovely performance. Maybe someday folks will get to see it.”
Politics and timing
The film’s themes include environmental harm and class exploitation, and Blair noted the story’s enduring relevance. He said, “I think it would’ve been relevant in 1920, or the 1980s. There’s always going to be some version of that — the extraordinarily rich getting to do what they want at the expense of people who are squeezed out.”
He added, “It’s just a reflection of This kind of sucks, and How can we make a ridiculous fantasy story within that? But I think it would’ve been relevant any old time, unfortunately.”
For context, the movie’s plot points touch on environmental regulation and health-care access; related reporting can be found at Time, MSN, and NPR.
Source material and tone
The Toxic Avenger is a remake of the 1984 Troma cult classic; background on that original can be read at this page. Blair said he drew inspiration from the late 1980s and early 1990s wave of environmental stories, citing cultural touchstones like Captain Planet.
Cartoonish violence and comedy
Blair described the film’s gore as intentionally comic. He said that framing violence in a “cartoonish, lighthearted way” reminded him of early experiments with friends and cheap gear, and that approach made the material feel less like real-world suffering and more like playful mess-making.
Casting: Dinklage and Bacon
The movie is anchored by Peter Dinklage as Winston and Kevin Bacon as industrialist Bob Garbinger. Blair said he reached out to both on the strength of their reputations and senses of humor. “I knew they were both really tremendous actors, and I knew that they both had really great senses of humor, both on-screen and also about themselves,” he said.
He also mentioned that the actors were open to broad, turned-up performances: “It turns out they did respond to it and they were looking to have fun in this, with a sort of overheated, turned-up-to-11 type of performance. That’s what I was hoping for — there’s just something delightful to me about taking these very respectable movie stars and having them appear in this cartoonish sort of context.”
The director noted that the film aims for a mix of gore and silliness instead of heavy drama, and that he prefers that balance as a viewer and filmmaker.
When to see it
The Toxic Avenger opens in U.S. theaters on Aug. 29. Cineverse is handling the theatrical release and appears to be focusing on getting the film into cinemas rather than immediately placing it on a streaming service.
