The Toxic Avenger remake casts Kevin Bacon as the villain

(Image credit: SyFy)

The Toxic Avenger has met his match as The Hollywood Reporter announced today Kevin Bacon joins the cast as the movie's villain.

Described as a "contemporary reimagining" of the Troma original, the movie revolves around a regular everyman who, when pushed into a vat of toxic waste, turns into a mutant freak forced to become a community hero when corrupt businesses threaten the lives of those he loves. This take "subverts the superhero genre in the vein of Deadpool," according to early reports.

Blue Ruin's Macon Blair is set to write and direct with Troma veterans Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz back to produce.

Largely ignored at time of release, the 1984 movie directed by Kaufman later became a cult classic, spawning a slew of sequels, a musical, video games, a kids cartoon, and a women's athleisure line. Okay, maybe not that last one, but you get the point.

No other word on who Bacon plays, except for the description of his character being "slick and likely over the top." Sounds right in Bacon's villainous wheelhouse to be honest. The Tremors star has walked a fine line between heroes and baddies throughout his career, turning in some top-notch scenery-chewing turns over the years in campy classics Hollow Man and Wild Things.

The remake's steadily accruing a solid pedigree of performers of late. Bacon joins Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage, who appears as the titular hero, and Doctor Sleep's Jacob Tremblay, both experienced genre thesps. The pair are set to star opposite Taylour Paige who recently snagged the female lead.

Blair's a great choice to direct, with his 2017 debut I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore signalling his talent for balancing thrills with jet-black comedy. Elijah Wood, who starred is rumored to appear in The Toxic Avenger but no official word has dropped as yet. If this remake does well at the box office, don't be surprised if we see a whole new Toxic Avenger franchise emerge in the coming years.

While The Toxic Avenger currently has no release date, we'll keep you posted on when that changes. Until then, check out our list of movie release dates to get excited about in 2021 and beyond.

Gem Seddon is GamesRadar+'s west coast Entertainment News Reporter, working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.