Kevin Bacon is officially joining the upcoming remake of The Toxic Avenger.
Not to be confused with those other Avengers, the film is Legendary Entertainment’s reboot of the 1984 Z-movie superhero comedy by Troma Entertainment. Bacon will be portraying a villain opposite Peter Dinklage, who’s slated to star as the film’s title character. Thus far, Jacob Tremblay and Taylour Paige are also signed on to the reboot.
The original Toxic Avenger movie told the story of Melvin Ferd, an ordinary janitor who becomes a mutant after being pushed into a giant vat of toxic waste. Upon this unfortunate transformation, he becomes an unlikely defender of his family, friends and the community of Tromaville against gangs, drug dealers and a criminal overlord named Cigar Face, subverting virtually every superhero trope in the book in the process.
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Produced on a nearly non-existent budget, the splatter movie eventually earned its status as a cult classic thanks to a long-running midnight movie engagement at Greenwich Village’s Bleecker Street Cinema throughout 1985. The Toxic Avenger went on to spawn three film sequels — 1989’s The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie and 2000’s Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV — as well as a children’s TV series, a video game and even a 2008 rock musical.
It’s unclear whether Bacon will step into the shoes of Cigar Face or a new original villain, but the Macon Blair-helmed update is currently scheduled to begin filming in Bulgaria later this month.
Back in December, the Footloose star filmed a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” for his menagerie of baby goats, while in June he took part in a livestream tribute to the late John Prine, which also featured Kacey Musgraves, Bill Murray, Brandi Carlile and more.
