Peter Dinklage is unsure whether The Toxic Avenger will ever "have its day in the toxic sun”

Peter Dinklage might need a blistery hero of his own to barge in and save his Toxic Avenger remake from obscurity. The Dinklage-led take on the schlocky, 1984 Troma cult classic about a janitor who becomes an unlikely, bloody vigilante after falling into a vat of acid debuted at last year’s Fantastic Fest to a mostly un-acidic reception. The film sits at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes with 25 reviews. It also features Elijah Wood doing his best Gollum impression, so there’s really no discernable reason why this thing shouldn’t be seen by the whole damn country.

About a year after its first teaser was released, however, Dinklage still doesn’t have a happy update about The Toxic Avenger‘s fate. “I’m not a producer on it. I don’t know,” Dinklage told ComicBook.com when asked whether the film would ever get a release date. “I do want it to get out there into the world because it was a really big hit at Fantastic Fest in Austin, and Macon Blair, the writer/director… He’s incredible. He’s one of my favorite people and favorite artists. So hopefully it will have its day in the toxic sun.”

Even if the remake, per its logline, is a little more focused on “environmental themes” like “greed and corruption” than pure gore for gore’s sake like its predecessor, it may still be “too out there” for theatrical release, according to distributors. “If it had great reviews then maybe the forecast would be a little rosier, but there isn’t much potential. It’s too niche. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it on Tubi a few years from now,” an anonymous producer on the film purportedly told World Of Reel last month. Filmmaker Adam Masnyk seemed to confirm this directive on Twitter/X when he posted “this is factual” in response to a separate Tweet suggesting that “distributors considered it wasn’t safe enough to market, so no one has picked it up.” “This is what we (I work in movie product licensing) were officially told as well regarding it,” Masnyk wrote. 

This is all gossip, of course, but things do seem grim for the avenger we deserve. We haven’t even seen Dinklage in his full toxic getup in anything but profile, much less any real footage of his co-stars Wood, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, and Kevin Bacon. At least the teaser featured one awesome jaw-ripping scene, which you can watch below: