The Toxic Avenger remake: Elijah Wood may be playing the villain

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

This news has not yet been officially confirmed, but the website The Illuminerdi is reporting that Elijah Wood will be playing the villain in writer/director Macon Blair's remake of the Troma classic The Toxic Avenger (watch it HERE). This report is quite easy to believe, because Wood played a great role in Blair's feature directorial debut I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, and tweeted a reaction when it was announced that Peter Dinklage would be starring in Blair's The Toxic Avenger:

Yes!???????????? @MaconBlair https://t.co/yYjGkM24PZ

— Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) December 1, 2020

It has also been revealed that the Toxic Avenger character will not be named Melvin Ferd or Melvin Junko as he was in the Troma movies. In this version, his name is Winston. Blair's take on the concept is 

set in a fantasy world and follows Winston, a stereotypical weakling who works as a janitor at Garb-X health club and is diagnosed with a terminal illness that can only be cured by an expensive treatment that his greedy, power hungry employer refuses to pay for. After deciding to take matters into his own hands and rob his company, Winston falls into a pit of toxic waste and is transformed into a deformed monster that sets out to do good and get back at all the people who have wronged him.

The Illuminerdi says this is the character description for the villain Wood is playing: 

Bob Garbinger (40-50) – Leonine hair and eerie plastic surgery. Evil head of the shady company Garb X. He has no regard for the well being of anyone but himself and embarks on a murderous spree to become as powerful as Toxie. His ego is bolstered by his standing amongst the towns official but in reality he lives in fear of the underworld gang he’s indebted to.

We'll have to wait for an official announcement before we know for sure whether or not Elijah Wood really is in the cast, but in the meantime we do know that The Toxic Avenger will star Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, and Taylour Paige.

Filming is expected to begin in Bulgaria later this month. Troma's Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz are producing the remake with Legendary Entertainment.